Around Baseball 2022

[jaysblue]

It might depend what you think of Biggio as an outfileder and whether you'd put Belt in left field for 10 games (he's played 90 outfield career and played there as recently as 2019).

 

Belt could DH 60 games, 1b 40 games and outfield 10. Then you would have Biggio and Merrifield as the backup outfielder.

 

It also probably depends on whether you can trade a catcher. Otherwise with all 3 of them a catcher is taking up some DH time.

 

Yeah if you can't play him in left field that much, not worth it. Plus have to open up a roster spot for him. Just thought as a lefty bat with some good OBP skills who could play around 1B/DH/ and LF occasionally when you need.

[jaysblue]

I guess so, but they really would have been better off keeping JD Martinez in that case.

 

I think Turner's bat will be a nice fit at Fenway, but agreed if he's only going to DH, keeping JD Martinez around on a one-year deal would have been better IMO.

[jaysblue]

Peralta does make a lot of sense, especially since he's more likely to accept a platoon/non-everyday role than Conforto is, so the Jays would have a bit more flexibility with DH in that scenario (for Kirk, Springer, etc).

 

Most of the good free agents signed before Christmas. I don't remember a MLB free agency that went this quickly.

 

Yeah I remember at the beginning of the offseason when things were starting off slow, we all were wanting some big headlines haha. Now every major FA signed before Christmas means January likely will be a slow baseball news month. Hoping for at least a couple of blockbuster trades.

[Ehjays]

Belt just had major surgery

Will be 35 soon

Toronto does not need a 1B/DH

 

I wonder how many career homers Belt would have if he played in a home park that was just neutral for LH power.

It has always felt like playing for San Francisco was kind of the only thing keeping him from being thought of as a star.

His production (WAR) from 23 to 29 lines up closely with guys like Ryan Howard, Jason Giambi, Justin Morneau, Derrek Lee, Kevin Youkilis.

He has been an all star ONCE. But always has been such a sock solid hitter.

 

A sock solid hitter is a great scouting report on Belt

[jaysblue]

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-mlb-free-agents-remaining

 

Not many great options left haha.

 

Jurickson Profar could be interesting since he could play all over and is a switch hitter, though doubt the Blue Jays are interested.

 

I think the Jays are best to target a younger OF under control via trade if they could.

[Jimcanuck]

Yeah I remember at the beginning of the offseason when things were starting off slow, we all were wanting some big headlines haha. Now every major FA signed before Christmas means January likely will be a slow baseball news month. Hoping for at least a couple of blockbuster trades.

 

Likely, January is mostly IFA signings

 

One item to watch is the Dodgers / Bauer situation. Apparently the Dodgers haven't been that active this offseason, not because of Ohtani, because they don't know if they are on the hook for $40M or not.

 

With all the high end FA signed, if the arbitrator rules in MLB/Dodgers favour, we probably see the Dodgers making trades and taking on contracts.

[Laika]

A sock solid hitter is a great scouting report on Belt

 

lol oops

[Jimcanuck]

BA has Twinkies Top 10 out today. Austin Martin nowhere to be found. SWR is #10.

 

Seems the teams that passed on Martin knew what they were doing.

[G-Snarls]

BA has Twinkies Top 10 out today. Austin Martin nowhere to be found. SWR is #10.

 

Seems the teams that passed on Martin knew what they were doing.

 

I was so excited that we got him at the time...

[Jimcanuck]

I was so excited that we got him at the time...

 

Same, I was thinking a CF playing Altuve.

[G-Snarls]

Prospects. Bah!

[Ehjays]

[G-Snarls]

Lugo will be guaranteed $15MM on the contract and can opt out of the deal following the 2023 season, tweets Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Heyman adds that the deal pays Lugo $7.5MM in 2023 before he’ll decide on a $7.5MM player option for 2024

[Laika]

Kind of a gross amount of $$ for Seth Lugo tbh

[G-Snarls]

Kind of a gross amount of $$ for Seth Lugo tbh

 

Padres specialize in gross contracts

[Eat My Shatkins]

San Diego Overpaydres

[Ray]

Friendly reminder that Drew Pomeranz signed a 4 year, $34M contract with the Padres and is basically MIA now.

[Stangstag]

Do we go balls out for Devers this offseason if he doesn’t re-sign with Boston? I guess the Yankees would probably be involved too.

[L54]

Do we go balls out for Devers this offseason if he doesn’t re-sign with Boston? I guess the Yankees would probably be involved too.

 

Devers is going to be looking at a Correa contract so probably not.

[G-Snarls]

To be fair the Padres have loads of talent

 

Including an absolutely ridiculous 1-4 in the lineup with Tatis, Soto, Bogaerts and Machado in any order

 

This year might be their best chance to actually be better than the Dodgers

 

But it's obviously just not a sustainable model

[BTS]

To be fair the Padres have loads of talent

 

Including an absolutely ridiculous 1-4 in the lineup with Tatis, Soto, Bogaerts and Machado in any order

 

This year might be their best chance to actually be better than the Dodgers

 

But it's obviously just not a sustainable model

 

Soto is going to score like 130 runs this year

[connorp]

Soto is going to score like 130 runs this year

 

The lineup is pretty uninspiring as a whole. Also, not sure how many games Tatis will miss. More about balance with them

[connorp]

To be fair the Padres have loads of talent

 

Including an absolutely ridiculous 1-4 in the lineup with Tatis, Soto, Bogaerts and Machado in any order

 

This year might be their best chance to actually be better than the Dodgers

 

But it's obviously just not a sustainable model

 

They were going to sign Judge. They got some pumps left in their sack. I expect they’ll be a major player the next few years and then BTS can go sit in his room and cry

[G-Snarls]

The lineup is pretty uninspiring as a whole. Also, not sure how many games Tatis will miss. More about balance with them

 

They have the best top half of a lineup in the majors

 

The bottom half *is* kinda meh

[connorp]

They have the best top half of a lineup in the majors

 

The bottom half *is* kinda meh

 

I’d bet the avg OPS is something like .700-.725 5-9 without looking

[Spanky99]

The lineup is pretty uninspiring as a whole. Also, not sure how many games Tatis will miss. More about balance with them

 

lol... that lineup is pretty stacked. Tatis will miss the first 20 games but I think he can participate in ST and the minors as for his rehab.

[Sorrow]

Devers is going to be looking at a Correa contract so probably not.

 

While basically being a slightly better Matt Chapman. I'd rather extend Chapman.

[Spanky99]

While basically being a slightly better Matt Chapman. I'd rather extend Chapman.

 

I get what you're saying, but he's a full win better basically, that doesn't fall in the slightly better territory.

[Dick_Pole]

I'm with Sorrow on that. An attempt at a Chapman extension is a much better use of the club's time and resources compared to chasing Devers. Unless they know something about Chapman that makes an extension a bad move.

[Laika]

Devers will be incredibly young and surely command a 10 to 13 year contract but I don't want Toronto to give it to him.

 

He has some warts.

He's not a good defender at third.

He's a bit of a hacker - we have seen him run fairly high K rates in some past seasons and at times even when he is good he is a bit swing happy. The walk rates are good enough but not great by any stretch.

 

So we don't have the "pure slugger" profile and we don't have a profile with defensive value and speed to slowly age away.

 

Some team is going to give him $300M+ and I just don't see why he's worth more than Austin Riley.