Around Baseball 2023

[L54]

If they play just to their projections this is a much better team.

 

Yup

[Eat My Shatkins]

The window is closing crowd says this is Toronto’s last chance but the window is broken if all the home grown players underperform again next year. 3 WAR Bellinger and 2 WAR Hoskins aren’t making up for Manoah/Vlad/Kirk/Springer averaging 1 WAR each

 

Exactly.

 

I said the same thing a couple pages back. The biggest improvement this team can make now is to have all the underperforming players from last season not suck ass again.

[L54]

Exactly.

 

I said the same thing a couple pages back. The biggest improvement this team can make now is to have all the underperforming players from last season not suck ass again.

 

The Jays need to be smart and not mortgage the future by making Cody Bellinger the face of the franchise

[Laika]

Yeah it makes no sense.

 

The team that should be signing Cody Bellinger for funny money is the team that has a 4+ year core of youngsters locked and loaded.

 

Seattle has Dominic Canzone as their projected RF, Cade Marlowe in LF, and Taylor Trammell as a starting position player occupying DH on their depth chart. Ty France coming off 0.5 WAR as their 1B.

 

Seattle also has:

Luis Castillop 4 years

J Rod 6 years

George Kirby 5 years

Bryce Miller 6 years

Cal Raleigh 4 years

Matt Brash 5 years

Logan Gilbert 4 years

Bryan Woo 6 years

JP Crawford 3 more

Robbie Ray 3 more

Andres Munoz 5 more, if they want

 

Seattle should sign Cody Bellinger. LMAO. They f***ing need him omg. Perfect fit and he is an upgrade on a replacement level position player.

 

I will go further. If the Mariners do not sign Cody Bellinger, regardless of cost, they simply do not care about winning.

[wamco]

The window is closing crowd says this is Toronto’s last chance but the window is broken if all the home grown players underperform again next year. 3 WAR Bellinger and 2 WAR Hoskins aren’t making up for Manoah/Vlad/Kirk/Springer averaging 1 WAR each

 

I don’t get the “window “ either. So vlad leaves after 2 more seasons and we use his 25m salary on another 1bman. Big deal.

Bo is another matter but his 17m can go towards a replacement.

 

We’re at big boy payroll nowadays. f*** the window talk. Bo and vlad aren’t cheap anymore.

[L54]

I don’t get the “window “ either. So vlad leaves after 2 more seasons and we use his 25m salary on another 1bman. Big deal.

Bo is another matter but his 17m can go towards a replacement.

 

We’re at big boy payroll nowadays. f*** the window talk. Bo and vlad aren’t cheap anymore.

 

Nope they aren’t. And in two years if you have 40M to fill SS and 1B I think you can find a way to do it

[Laika]

I don’t get the “window “ either. So vlad leaves after 2 more seasons and we use his 25m salary on another 1bman. Big deal.

Bo is another matter but his 17m can go towards a replacement.

 

We’re at big boy payroll nowadays. f*** the window talk. Bo and vlad aren’t cheap anymore.

 

Precisely. Exactly. Perfect.

[L54]

Yeah it makes no sense.

 

The team that should be signing Cody Bellinger for funny money is the team that has a 4+ year core of youngsters locked and loaded.

 

Seattle has Dominic Canzone as their projected RF, Cade Marlowe in LF, and Taylor Trammell as a starting position player occupying DH on their depth chart. Ty France coming off 0.5 WAR as their 1B.

 

Seattle also has:

Luis Castillop 4 years

J Rod 6 years

George Kirby 5 years

Bryce Miller 6 years

Cal Raleigh 4 years

Matt Brash 5 years

Logan Gilbert 4 years

Bryan Woo 6 years

JP Crawford 3 more

Robbie Ray 3 more

Andres Munoz 5 more, if they want

 

Seattle should sign Cody Bellinger. LMAO. They f***ing need him omg. Perfect fit and he is an upgrade on a replacement level position player.

 

I will go further. If the Mariners do not sign Cody Bellinger, regardless of cost, they simply do not care about winning.

 

Good call. Seattle would be a great fit for Belanger

[Frenchsoup]

Seattle ain't paying the 175mill it's going to take though, makes sense though

[Spanky__99]

 

I'm just glad he ain't a Yankee.

[Spanky__99]

To Jim's point earlier on LA building a superteam, written by Passan...

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39167935/yamamoto-ohtani-dodgers-superteam-free-agency

[BigCecil]

To Jim's point earlier on LA building a superteam, written by Passan...

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39167935/yamamoto-ohtani-dodgers-superteam-free-agency

 

Good piece. Passan stock is up in this off season. He has resisted the pressure to be first on a story and resisted joining the herd.

[Stangstag]

Yeah it makes no sense.

 

The team that should be signing Cody Bellinger for funny money is the team that has a 4+ year core of youngsters locked and loaded.

 

Seattle has Dominic Canzone as their projected RF, Cade Marlowe in LF, and Taylor Trammell as a starting position player occupying DH on their depth chart. Ty France coming off 0.5 WAR as their 1B.

 

Seattle also has:

Luis Castillop 4 years

J Rod 6 years

George Kirby 5 years

Bryce Miller 6 years

Cal Raleigh 4 years

Matt Brash 5 years

Logan Gilbert 4 years

Bryan Woo 6 years

JP Crawford 3 more

Robbie Ray 3 more

Andres Munoz 5 more, if they want

 

Seattle should sign Cody Bellinger. LMAO. They f***ing need him omg. Perfect fit and he is an upgrade on a replacement level position player.

 

I will go further. If the Mariners do not sign Cody Bellinger, regardless of cost, they simply do not care about winning.

 

Baltimore would be a good fit for him honestly

[Jimcanuck]

I don’t get the “window “ either. So vlad leaves after 2 more seasons and we use his 25m salary on another 1bman. Big deal.

Bo is another matter but his 17m can go towards a replacement.

 

We’re at big boy payroll nowadays. f*** the window talk. Bo and vlad aren’t cheap anymore.

 

Say hello to 20 years of mediocrity with this approach.

[max silver]

Nope they aren’t. And in two years if you have 40M to fill SS and 1B I think you can find a way to do it

 

It's not just Vlad and Bo that might be gone after 2025 as Bassitt's contract will expire. Move a year further into the future and Gausman's deal expires and Berrios can opt out as well. The team may be losing 3/5 of it's rotation within the next 3 seasons and it's far from a given they will be able to replace someone like Gausman on such a team friendly contract in the future.

[Jimcanuck]

It is very difficult to field a winning team without several cost controlled contributors. If the Jays had a strong farm system with several highly ranked prospects, I would have no problem filling holes with guys only good for 1 year deals. Because the Jays would have the makings of a sustainable contender.

 

With the current state of the franchise and the relatively bare farm system, they really have two options (1) go for a win in the short term, or (2) sell assets and start the rebuild. (2) probably doesn't happen without Atkins being let go though.

[wamco]

It's not just Vlad and Bo that might be gone after 2025 as Bassitt's contract will expire. Move a year further into the future and Gausman's deal expires and Berrios can opt out as well. The team may be losing 3/5 of it's rotation within the next 3 seasons and it's far from a given they will be able to replace someone like Gausman on such a team friendly contract in the future.

 

Sure. It’s not ideal but that’s how it goes. Each of those pitchers frees up about 21m per year as well to spend. Ideally, we’d like draft players and develop them into cheap mlb talent. That would be the X factor.

[max silver]

Sure. It’s not ideal but that’s how it goes. Each of those pitchers frees up about 21m per year as well to spend. Ideally, we’d like draft players and develop them into cheap mlb talent. That would be the X factor.

 

The lack of cost controlled talent on the roster is the key factor that may lead to this current window closing. It's simply not sustainable long term to keep handing out $20 million AAV free agent contracts every single off season if there isn't a pipeline of cheap talent to replace more expensive veteran players who depart.

[Eat My Shatkins]

Last year was the Jays peak year to win it all in this window I think. And they had plenty go right to, as a huge chunk of the depth players really pulled through and the pitching was incredible and healthy.

 

But Vlad s*** the bed and only put up 1 fWAR

Manoah really s*** the bed with his negative fWAR season where he ended up in the minors.

Springer, Kirk and Varsho completely forgot how to hit.

 

All that cost the jays like what? 8-10 fWAR?

 

It's actually amazing they even made the wild card round to be honest.

 

If that group of players doesn't bounce back this season it'll be another frustrating slog where they maybe sneak into the wild card again.

[L54]

It's not just Vlad and Bo that might be gone after 2025 as Bassitt's contract will expire. Move a year further into the future and Gausman's deal expires and Berrios can opt out as well. The team may be losing 3/5 of it's rotation within the next 3 seasons and it's far from a given they will be able to replace someone like Gausman on such a team friendly contract in the future.

 

BREAKING: Team loses players once their contracts expire

[L54]

The lack of cost controlled talent on the roster is the key factor that may lead to this current window closing. It's simply not sustainable long term to keep handing out $20 million AAV free agent contracts every single off season if there isn't a pipeline of cheap talent to replace more expensive veteran players who depart.

 

So sign Bellinger to an eight year deal. That makes sense

[L54]

It is very difficult to field a winning team without several cost controlled contributors. If the Jays had a strong farm system with several highly ranked prospects, I would have no problem filling holes with guys only good for 1 year deals. Because the Jays would have the makings of a sustainable contender.

 

With the current state of the franchise and the relatively bare farm system, they really have two options (1) go for a win in the short term, or (2) sell assets and start the rebuild. (2) probably doesn't happen without Atkins being let go though.

 

You can win the short term without handing out 200M contracts

[wamco]

Say hello to 20 years of mediocrity with this approach.

 

Vlad was worth one more FWAR than me

Last year

 

I know it’s hard to adjust to Roger’s spending with the big boys and hard to trust the rug won’t be pulled out from under us. I truly do. But it seems this is where we are. Embrace it and enjoy it. We don’t have albatross contracts. We have flexibility. And we’ll

Be just fine in 2 years. If anything, I suspect Atkins trades Bo and vlad next offseason.

[L54]

Vlad was worth one more FWAR than me

Last year

 

I know it’s hard to adjust to Roger’s spending with the big boys and hard to trust the rug won’t be pulled out from under us. I truly do. But it seems this is where we are. Embrace it and enjoy it. We don’t have albatross contracts. We have flexibility. And we’ll

Be just fine in 2 years. If anything, I suspect Atkins trades Bo and vlad next offseason.

 

I think so too. If this year is a flop I think Bo for sure is gone. Vlad depends on what 2024 looks like. But Bo will bring a decent return

[wamco]

Nope they aren’t. And in two years if you have 40M to fill SS and 1B I think you can find a way to do it

 

Thanks, thought it was just me who didn’t see a reason to panick.

[Jimcanuck]

So sign Bellinger to an eight year deal. That makes sense

 

Highest upside play of the remaining FA hitters

[Jimcanuck]

Thanks, thought it was just me who didn’t see a reason to panick.

 

No one is panicking, there are just different opinions on the path forward.

[L54]

Highest upside play of the remaining FA hitters

 

Largest commitment too

[Jimcanuck]

Largest commitment too

 

Well, duh

[L54]

Largest commitment too

 

With considerable risk