Around Baseball 2025

[L54]

19 hours ago, Spanky99 said:

Hahaha... L54, I knew you were one of the guys that would get a kick out of that.

Baseball Comedy Gold!

Lmao I love it !

[Brownie19]

Those hats look ridiculous.  

[Terminator]

 

[Pendleton]

 

[Laika]

I like it 

[Brownie19]

I also like it.  Move TB there and carry on!

[Gen.Disarray]

https://www.mlb.com/news/seiya-suzuki-slices-baseballs-with-a-samurai-sword?partnerID=mlbapp-android_article-share

Batting practice with a sword. Looks fun :)

[BB17]

Sounds like the owners really want to expand to 2 more cities to get expansion fee money. (2 new teams at 800M each would amount to just over 50M per franchise. So I don't think the owners really want Tampa to move to Nashville as it would take away an expansion site.

Curious to see how MLB would handle an expansion draft with 2 or even 1 new team. Baseball is a lot different than the other 3 Major sport leagues with just how many players are in the organization across all the different minor league levels. You'd prolly have to have a major league expansion draft and then a minor league one where teams can only protect "x" number of prospects.

Personally I rather not see expansion, I feel the talent level would be stretched pretty thin if you add another team let alone 2. There already are a lot of players who are on MLB rosters who just aren't good enough to be at the MLB level.

[John_Havok]

13 hours ago, BB17 said:

Sounds like the owners really want to expand to 2 more cities to get expansion fee money. (2 new teams at 800M each would amount to just over 50M per franchise. So I don't think the owners really want Tampa to move to Nashville as it would take away an expansion site.

Curious to see how MLB would handle an expansion draft with 2 or even 1 new team. Baseball is a lot different than the other 3 Major sport leagues with just how many players are in the organization across all the different minor league levels. You'd prolly have to have a major league expansion draft and then a minor league one where teams can only protect "x" number of prospects.

Personally I rather not see expansion, I feel the talent level would be stretched pretty thin if you add another team let alone 2. There already are a lot of players who are on MLB rosters who just aren't good enough to be at the MLB level.

Some of this I agree with, but there's also a lot of guys in the minors that could hold their own at the majors too. 

[Brownie19]

https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/3241237/rays-wont-move-forward-with-plan-for-new-park

Looks like TB won't be moving forward with a new park and will be returning to the Trop in 2026.  Barf.

[Terminator]

14 hours ago, BB17 said:

Sounds like the owners really want to expand to 2 more cities to get expansion fee money. (2 new teams at 800M each would amount to just over 50M per franchise. So I don't think the owners really want Tampa to move to Nashville as it would take away an expansion site.

Curious to see how MLB would handle an expansion draft with 2 or even 1 new team. Baseball is a lot different than the other 3 Major sport leagues with just how many players are in the organization across all the different minor league levels. You'd prolly have to have a major league expansion draft and then a minor league one where teams can only protect "x" number of prospects.

Personally I rather not see expansion, I feel the talent level would be stretched pretty thin if you add another team let alone 2. There already are a lot of players who are on MLB rosters who just aren't good enough to be at the MLB level.

Interesting points about the expansion fee. It makes sense why they want the Rays owner to sell and then keep the team in Tampa under new ownership rather than allowing the current owner to move them.

[Terminator]

As Jays fans would we want the Expos back? Probably a net negative for the Jays bottom dollar? But also kind of cool to have them back?

[Laika]

I say yes. More baseball in Canada. 

We also need more minor league teams. Shameful that there is only one affiliated minor league team. I think there are a couple independent league teams. 

[G-Snarls]

On a related note:

-

March 13th, 2025 at 1:07pm CST

Rays Will Not Move Forward With Plans For New Ballpark

March 13th, 2025 at 1:07pm CST • By Steve Adams

1:07pm: Major League Baseball issued the following statement in the wake of the Rays’ announcement:

“Major League Baseball remains committed to finding a permanent home for the Club in the Tampa Bay region for their fans and the local community. Commissioner Manfred understands the disappointment of the St. Petersburg community from today’s announcement, but he will continue to work with elected officials, community leaders, and Rays officials to secure the club’s future in the Tampa Bay region.”

10:58am: As the Rays continue to deal with the lasting impact of damages to Tropicana Field during Hurricane Milton, owner Stu Sternberg announced this morning that his club will no longer be moving forward with the previous tentative plans to construct a new ballpark in St. Petersburg.

[Spanky__99]

3 hours ago, Laika said:

I say yes. More baseball in Canada. 

We also need more minor league teams. Shameful that there is only one affiliated minor league team. I think there are a couple independent league teams. 

There's a bunch of Independent teams across the country, clearly not enough though.

[BB17]

11 hours ago, Terminator said:

As Jays fans would we want the Expos back? Probably a net negative for the Jays bottom dollar? But also kind of cool to have them back?

I’d like to see it and think it would be great for baseball in the country but I can’t see it happening honestly. 

They would have to build a stadium and you aren’t getting public money like some teams do from city/county down south. It would cost over a Billion dollars to build and could end up being like 1.5-2 Billion CAD.

Which is the next biggest challenge- the Canadian dollar. 1 USD=1.45 CAD right now and with all the tariff turmoil it could get worse. Add in the tariff factor if you were to build a stadium (some materials come from states) and that’s how the costs could get ridiculous. Also pretty sure a lot of the construction contracts in Montreal are still run by the Mob there so that could drive it up even more lol.

And if you think Toronto has trouble attracting free agents, wait till you tell players they’ll pay even more taxes and live in a city where French is the first language lol.

 

[BB17]

12 hours ago, John_Havok said:

Some of this I agree with, but there's also a lot of guys in the minors that could hold their own at the majors too. 

If you brought 2 new teams in at once (which for scheduling they would have to) I just feel it would be such a shock to the system. The teams at the top end likely wouldn’t change that much but the average- bad teams I think you’d really see some guys struggling who just wouldn’t normally be in the majors. And September it would hurt even worse since you’d have guys injured/out for the season. 

The expansion teams would likely be dreadful too, although if they got creative with the expansion draft, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

[jaysblue]

Montreal would need a new ballpark located downtown or by the waterfront. Olympic Stadium is garbage and in the middle of nowhere. Would prefer seeing a team out in Vancouver, but probably won't happen with the Mariners too close. 

As well, I see MLB preferring US cities over Montreal. Baseball didn't work out in Montreal unfortunately so don't see why Montreal would be considered again for a MLB team. Cities like Nashville or Portland or Charlotte or Salt Lake City would be way more attractive options. 

Additionally, I think MLB would put a team in Mexico City or Punta Cuna or Puerto Rico before they bring a team back to Canada.

[Laika]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/rafael-devers-reportedly-considered-asking-for-trade.html

 

Trade Vlad for Devers

[jaysblue]

18 hours ago, Laika said:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/03/rafael-devers-reportedly-considered-asking-for-trade.html

 

Trade Vlad for Devers

Would definitely be a good challenge trade if Boston could lock up Vladdy to an extension.

Devers has a higher floor. You know you're going to get around 4 WAR from him each season and he's locked up for $310M which is pretty decent. Vladdy on the other hand has much higher upside, but we've seen Vladdy also with a lower floor where he put up a 1.3 WAR season in 2023.

Would entertain the idea especially if the Jays can't lock up Vladdy and are just going to let him walk away for nothing. But yeah worried Vladdy goes all Manny Ramirez in Boston for the next decade haha.  

[Laika]

9/$284m left to Devers 

Vlad wants 15/$500m 

Easy decision 

[Pendleton]

On 3/13/2025 at 1:19 PM, Laika said:

I say yes. More baseball in Canada. 

We also need more minor league teams. Shameful that there is only one affiliated minor league team. I think there are a couple independent league teams. 

 

Ottawa has an Indy league team (Titans), playing in the stadium where they had AAA ball for a few years (Ottawa Lynx). 

 

It would be pretty awesome if the short season summer ball was played up north instead of the Carribean 

[G-Snarls]

Joey Gallo likely done?

Released from his minor league deal by the White Sox 

[Jays24]

9 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

Joey Gallo likely done?

Released from his minor league deal by the White Sox 

Congrats Gallo, you are the new Cleanup Hitter for the Jays lol

[L54]

5 hours ago, G-Snarls said:

Joey Gallo likely done?

Released from his minor league deal by the White Sox 

Just read he’s going to try his hand at pitching 

[John_Havok]

33 minutes ago, L54 said:

Just read he’s going to try his hand at pitching 

Makes sense. Trying his foot at pitching would be pretty dumb.

[Laika]

Clarke Schmidt might have a shoulder issue 

Stroman has gone from trade candidate surplus to the Yankees' SP3 in like ten days 

[max silver]

11 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Congrats Gallo, you are the new Cleanup Hitter for the Jays lol

Wait where did the thumbs down button go? 

[BTS]

The Yankees kind of suck. Running a rotation of Fried, Rodon, Stroman, Warren, and.... Carrasco? Bullpen is super thin after Williams and Weaver. No 3B. 40-year old Paul Goldscmidt at 1B. Paper thin bench. Not clear that Dominguez is any good and there's no depth after him in the OF. 

[John_Havok]

Just now, max silver said:

Wait where did the thumbs down button go? 

My guess is it got removed because people were abusing it and just constant thumbs-down on any posts from certain people