2020-2021 Off-season News Notes and Discussion #2

[Ron Madden]

Buster Olney @Buster_ESPN
Michael Brantley gets a two-year, $32 million deal with the Astros

[Ron Madden]

Buster Olney
@Buster_ESPN
Within the context of what's being paid out this winter, Michael Brantley's 2-year, $32 million deal an excellent contract. And it should hearten the unsigned Marcell Ozuna.

[Mitri]

The dominoes are beginning to fall away from Krall. He better get a deal done soon or he'll be stuck with Galvis again.

[Griffey012]

The dominoes are beginning to fall away from Krall. He better get a deal done soon or he'll be stuck with Galvis again.

A few players sign that play positions the Reds aren't in the market for and suddenly it is slipping away? Doesn't add up.

I am sure someone will come back and argue about relief pitchers, but nothing has linked the Reds to looking for high cost relief pitchers.

[Mitri]

A few players sign that play positions the Reds aren't in the market for and suddenly it is slipping away? Doesn't add up.

I am sure someone will come back and argue about relief pitchers, but nothing has linked the Reds to looking for high cost relief pitchers.

Reds were hoping for a severely depressed market to bring them one of the primo SS on a short deal. But the market has turned out to look relatively healthy in terms of AAV and the market for guys like Semien seems to be growing, not shrinking. It could be the Reds are fine with any of the big 3 SS, it just has to be in their terms.

When teams like Toronto, SD and NY Mets suddenly return to the big spenders club it doesn't help smaller market orgs waiting for players to get desperate. These teams (and the others in the club) will just scoop up all of the talent, positional needs be damned, and sort out the rest when the season begins.

[Griffey012]

Reds were hoping for a severely depressed market to bring them one of the primo SS on a short deal. But the market has turned out to look relatively healthy in terms of AAV and the market for guys like Semien seems to be growing, not shrinking. It could be the Reds are fine with any of the big 3 SS, it just has to be in their terms.

When teams like Toronto, SD and NY Mets suddenly return to the big spenders club it doesn't help smaller market orgs waiting for players to get desperate. These teams (and the others in the club) will just scoop up all of the talent, positional needs be damned, and sort out the rest when the season begins.

I have a hard time believing any of those teams will acquire one of the main 3 SS, unless it is a bargain in which case they Reds have probably nabbed one. They would be more inclined to grab a guy like Profar for a utility role instead of Didi.

There are very few suitors for the SS. That works in the Reds favor and would also help explain the lack of activity in the SS market.

[Ron Madden]

Jeff Passan
@JeffPassan
Left-hander J.A. Happ and the Minnesota Twins are in agreement on a one-year deal, pending physical, sources tell ESPN.

[Ron Madden]

Jim Bowden
@JimBowdenGM
Trevor Bauer makes it clear on YouTube that Winning & getting back to World Series is important to him so is creating a partnership w/a team that won’t give him pushback on his training program/analytics/social networking.Geography & market size not important to him.
@BauerOutage

[savafan]

I’m getting the feeling that Bauer’s market is getting rather small


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[JFLegal]

I’m getting the feeling that Bauer’s market is getting rather small


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define rather small.

i'm open to hearing an opposing viewpoint, but i still think he will get a monster contract, and there are likely more teams interested than have been reported.

[RedTeamGo!]

define rather small.

i'm open to hearing an opposing viewpoint, but i still think he will get a monster contract, and there are likely more teams interested than have been reported.

I think he will get a large contract as well, but I think there are only a couple teams willing to do it. I think the Dodgers would give him a 1-2 year contract at like $35m AAV, but with regard to a 9 figure deal I think it might be only the Blue Jays and Mets.

[jup]

define rather small.

i'm open to hearing an opposing viewpoint, but i still think he will get a monster contract, and there are likely more teams interested than have been reported.

Is 3 to 4 teams rather small ??

Angels, Jays, Mets and maybe Dodgers. Short term deal (1 to 2 years, or 1 with a player option), AAV pushing $36+ million mark

[RedTeamGo!]

Is 3 to 4 teams rather small ??

Angels, Jays, Mets and maybe Dodgers. Short term deal (1 to 2 years, or 1 with a player option), AAV pushing $36+ million mark

That’s a pretty small market for a player of your caliber, Trevor.

[CaiGuy]

Is 3 to 4 teams rather small ??

Angels, Jays, Mets and maybe Dodgers. Short term deal (1 to 2 years, or 1 with a player option), AAV pushing $36+ million mark

Would it be worth considering something like a ~$25million 1 year deal, with a mutual or player option for ~$35million with a ~$10 buyout (even if the player declines)? Pretty large differement, but it seems like it could expand the circle of interested teams with all of their revenue concerns this coming year.

It could also have mutual options $35million+ that appear at the end of every season...effectively making it a series of 1 year contacts that the player can jump out of at any time.

[jup]

Would it be worth considering something like a ~$25million 1 year deal, with a mutual or player option for ~$35million with a ~$10 buyout (even if the player declines)? Pretty large differement, but it seems like it could expand the circle of interested teams with all of their revenue concerns this coming year.

It could also have mutual options $35million+ that appear at the end of every season...effectively making it a series of 1 year contacts that the player can jump out of at any time.

Well after looking at the Liam Hendriks contract I guess there are lots of possibilities. But if you want more teams involved, I suspect you still make it a short term contract and just defer money out 3, 5 or 7 years in order to ease the near term cash flow crunch because of COVID.

Looking at the market realistically, there just aren't many teams that have a need for a contract of $36+ million short term (1yr). Your window has to be next year or why both spending the excess cash above a lower tier FA or trade. And how many teams are really looking at next year being "the year" and need starting pitching to get them over the top ????

Yankees want to compete but have to reset the luxury tax and that is clearly more important to them than pushing the chips in right now. That leaves only Toronto in the AL East that might be a spot because the Red Sox clearly aren't. Dodgers already won with what they had, add Price so realistically they are a fringe candidate at best. San Diego is all in but they decided to use prospect value to assemble their pitching staff, and there is no one else in that division that is realistically going to compete with those two next year. In the AL/NL Central, maybe the Twins as they need some help solving their first round exits and other than the CWS no team is competing for a WS title. CWS made a move early in getting Lynn and their window is really a year or two out with that young talent. And so it goes when you analyze division after division. That is just a problem baseball currently has. There are just not a lot of teams that are really playing to win it all right now. 4 or 5 teams that might think that this year they could take it all. 4 or 5 more that think they could get in and then just see what happens but aren't willing to push the chips all in. Just not a lot of teams out there looking at spending the excess cash over a lower tier FA because they think it puts them over the top next year. So the pool of teams just isn't real large.