glory

I have no interest in bringing Ray back on a monster deal either. He was great in 2021, but let someone else overpay for him. There’s just too much potential volatility with his performance. If he loses a tick on his FB or suddenly command disappears again and who knows. I’d argue Stroman would be the better long term investment, but I know that’s not happening in a million years. Either way, congrats to Ray. Amazing turnaround from 2020. Hope him and Semien get paid in free agency. They bet on themselves and earned this payday.

Apparently the player option is also for $25m, so worst case he gets 2/50. I can see why he stayed with the Astros.

I would think the Jays would have to significantly beat the other offers (not just come close) for Verlander to choose Toronto over New York or Boston. Probably would have to be something like 2/50 guaranteed. I would still be open to something like that given the short term nature of the signing, and Verlander probably still has some juice left, though I have no doubt he was using spider tack in Houston so there will be some drop off even without factoring age/TJS. I guess it depends on what others are offering.

I would have been fine if the Jays gave him that deal. I like it for the Angels. He was always going to take a one year deal because his upside is huge and he can cash out big time next season. About time the Angels made a good pitching move, even if it’s only for one year.

The extension using MLBTR's arb projection is essentially ~6/130 (he had a $10.9m arb projection). That's around what I thought it would take to get him extended, give or take. Edit: Davidi saying it's 7/131, so 6/120 as the extension using the above example. Seems fair for a SP like him who had to be convinced to forgo free agency. Jays really couldn't afford to lose him after 2022. It had to get done.

Cleveland seems to like Kirk a lot. Apparently asked for him in return for Kluber a couple of years ago, and there was a report in SI that said "the Blue Jays reportedly rejected a deadline ask for Ramírez that built a package around Alejandro Kirk and an assortment of top prospects and major league players." I don't think the Jays give up Moreno regardless, but if that report is true, then my guess is they could probably make something work with Kirk instead. Who they have to add in addition to him is the question.

Yeah I think they trade Kirk before they move Moreno to 3B.

On one hand, a lockout sucks and the next 2-3 months without any baseball news would suck. On the other hand, the thought of February having a month long flurry of big signings/trades, followed by spring training, and then right after that the regular season is pretty interesting. The NBA off season is basically one week of excitement followed by months of down time. Baseball winters are big moves spaced out over 4-5 months so at times it can seem boring as hell. A February-March stampede of moves followed by the regular season immediately after that would be crazy.

Agreed. A young SP with history of shoulder issues, even if it hasn't lead to a major surgery, is a huge red flag. I wouldn't mind if the Jays acquired him but I'd be careful not to give up too much.

This free agent market has the chance to be more exciting than any in recent years, especially with a lot more teams than usual looking to spend. Baseball winters tend to be a slog to get through but this one has to the potential to be really good. Hope they agree to something by the deadline. I would imagine they'll agree to something by February to avoid any missed games, but still would suck to lose 2+ months with so many big names available.

My guess is that Moreno to 3B is just a cover in case they can't get anyone decent and/or they don't end up trading Kirk. Short/long term, the team is probably better off with Kirk/Jansen at catcher and Moreno at 3B, rather than something like Seager/Escobar at 3B and Moreno at catcher. If Moreno is as great an offensive talent as publications are now projecting, then he needs to be playing 150+ games a year with less wear and tear on his body. Even if by some chance the Jays end up trading Kirk in a package for Ramirez, I'd probably move Moreno to 2B in that scenario, put Biggio as the utility IF, and roll with Jansen/Reese/AAA depth at catcher.

The Rockies didn't trade their impending FA's (in one of the strongest seller's markets in a long time) because they had the QO to offer, and then let Gray go without offering him one. That's definitely the most Rockies thing to do. As far as Syndergaard, he hasn't pitched in 2 years (except for a couple of innings in Sept this year). I don't see anyone offering him $100m, and I doubt he even takes anything other than a one year deal since he could bet on himself for a year and enter the market next winter in a much better position to cash out.

Seeing how the Reds operate, if the Jays took Moustakas, they could probably get Castillo for free.

Yeah there's no chance Espinal starts the year in AAA. If he's still in the org by the start of 2022, then he's going to be the utility infielder in the big leagues. Players like Smith and Lopez (both on the 40 man) are likely to be the AAA depth in case of injury. Taylor needs to be protected as well, so if he's still on the team, then he'll be in AAA as well.

Surprising that he turned down 1/13 to become a free agent.

Agreed about Dusty. Even if he comes back next year, chances are the Astros won’t be as good with Correa likely leaving. This might have been his last real chance.

That Soler HR was predictable. He was squaring up on everything Garcia was throwing him. What a shot.

The NBA starts Finals games at 9 pm EST. Of course, basketball games are usually around 2 and a half hours long and have a clock, so it's pretty much guaranteed to end before 11:30 (unless there are overtimes), but that's still pretty late in the east. Baseball just happens to be a game without a clock, and you can't really predict pace of play because a lot of times it depends on who is pitching, how many pitching changes, how many runs are being scored, etc. Even if games started at 7:05, they could conceivably still end after 11 pm. The only thing MLB can do is add a pitch clock and hope it cuts a decent chunk of time from the games on average. You can't really fundamentally change what baseball is to make the games faster, so killing as much dead time as possible is the only way.

The level of complaining by the national baseball media this past week has been incredible. Game 1 was too long and "bad for baseball", but then the next two games were a more reasonable 3:11 and 3:24, so can't harp on that as much anymore. So let's focus on how racist the Chop/Atlanta is because Passan works for ESPN and the game is on Fox, so perfect time to virtue signal when it doesn't hurt the network. Once that doesn't work (the crowd chopped anyway), let's move on to how much of a crisis removing SP's from the game after 5 is, even when said starter didn't look all that good despite the no hits allowed and the decision actually worked perfectly. I mean I get it, baseball needs to make improvements in certain aspects of the game, and even I'm not the biggest fan of this World Series so far, but the level of complaining by the biggest names in the baseball media is ridiculous. With that said, I am intrigued by the "double hook" idea because I think openers suck and I would like to see SP's in games longer, but there's a time and a place for that discussion. Not sure why they've decided to do it here.

If they instituted a pitch clock, Garcia would retire from baseball.

Jansen is under team control for 3 more years. Kirk is 5 more years. McGuire is nothing but he is still pre arb as well. If they wanted to move Moreno off of catcher and into an IF position, this is the perfect time to do it because the team is covered at catcher for at least 3 years (Jansen) and up to 5 depending on how Kirk ages. I don't think they are moving him off CA, though. More likely they'll keep Moreno at CA, start the year with Jansen/McGuire, and trade Kirk somewhere for a need.

I was wondering why Jeff Passan was trending. The above is the reason.

Yup, Chapman would be the ideal target. Shouldn't cost anywhere near as much as Ramirez, and there's still some upside in his bat if he can regain his prior form. Wonder what the cost would be.

"Rabid" fanbase is a compliment. I was saying that's one of the reasons I don't mind the Braves in it because games with crazy fans are more fun, and their fans are very passionate. I was just contrasting that to the opposite end of the spectrum (the Rays are their 14 fans). As far as the quality of the Braves, they won 88 games in a division where the 2nd best team was basically .500, and there were 3 teams under .500. I know they had injuries, with Acuna being a huge one, but they still should have run away with that division. They feel like a good team that got hot at the right time rather than a great team.

No, Astros/Dodgers would not have "grown the game" (certainly not on its own), but it would have been a series that 1) had a backstory, 2) would have been easy to get average fans interested in, and 3) would have involved a much better team on the NL side. As I said, if Acuna was healthy, and the Braves were actually a good team (instead of winning fewer games than the Jays in a cupcake division), then I'd have no issues with an Astros/Braves WS. One of the reasons I hate watching the Rays in the playoffs is because their fanbase is dog s***. Whereas, the 3 games in Atlanta are going to have rabid fans, so for me, it's more fun to watch games where the fans are passionate. Do I want the game to grow and succeed? Of course. I'd also have no problem if two small market teams were in the World Series and national interest was down as long as it had entertaining qualities to it. Hell, I'm a Blue Jays fan. The Jays in the World Series would crater national interest in the US. I wouldn't care one bit. But I do care about the entertainment aspect of it. There is simply no juice to this series. The only way they can get some is to have great games, and the first two were duds. Going to a game 7 or at least having some nail biters the next few games would help.