glory

Martin is a free agent after the season. He will be 36 so his time in the game is limited. He probably wants to win. He might also want a contract next year coming off a season where he plays a decent amount, not sitting on the bench mentoring his replacement on a rebuilding team. This was a favor to Martin, opening up a spot for Jansen to start everyday, freeing up a 40 man roster, saving some money, and getting some depth for the system all wrapped in one.

Minor league invite would be a no brainer.

Lol gotta love online scouting reports. Elite defensive SS or a 2B with declining defensive ability. Not much difference there at all.

Yeah Diaz would be a great fit for this roster right now. Hopefully Thornton turns out to be good.

Maybe, but depends on perceived upside, age, etc. Brito is a 19 year old in low A with power potential and defensive value up the middle. He's not a top prospect now, and may never will be one, but I think he's flippable a year or two from now if performance is there in the minors, especially if he can stick at short. I wouldn't say the same thing about Sopko due to his age and lack of upside. It's good to have these boom or busts in the minors, especially if you're getting them for someone you don't need anyway like Martin.

Brito is the type of prospect that if he puts up numbers in A+ and AA, you trade him in a package for a good vet. Accumulating prospects is not only to see if you can find players to fill big league spots, but also to use as currency in trades. AA's problem was he only used them as currency in trades with one or two exceptions. Shatkins is taking the much more beneficial route, but it will also lead to some 'prospects for vets' trades in the future. Hell, Dave Stewart got Dawel Lugo from us for Cliff Pennington, and then the D-Backs used Lugo to get a 2-3 war out of JD Martinez for half a season when they were making a playoff push. Some times these high risk low minors types are useful for that reason.

Alex A once said that buyouts count against current payroll, not future. I remember an example where Rajai Davis had a $3m option or $500k buyout after 2012. AA bought him out for $500k, then signed him for $2.5M in 2013. The logic was he got $3M anyway, but the $500k buyout counted against 2012 payroll. So basically AA saved $500k for 2013 by doing that. Are we sure the buyouts for Garcia, Solarte, etc, count for 2019? Not that it makes much of a difference, but now I'm curious how it works.

$3.9m for Sanchez, and $5.8m for Pillar. Damn of all the players that are arb eligible, we are going to arb with Ryan f’n Tepera.

Yeah Jays needed to open a 40 man roster spot for Phelps and trading Martin did it. Pompey saved for now.

Kendrys definitely needs to be the next sunk cost causality. Just pay all his salary and get some low minor C prospect. That will allow them to use DH to rest players throughout the year. And yeah I was arguing for trading Martin months ago and remember a lot of opposition to that from this forum. Wonder what changed.

Yeah I like Martin but this move makes sense. He can still start on a playoff team looking at who the starting catchers were for the LCS teams in 2018, and having him be a back up catcher on a rebuilding team probably didn't appeal to him. Jays can now give Jansen the keys and still have two other catchers on their 40 man. I guess this is the 40 man roster move for Phelps.

Yeah seriously. If I couldn't afford a damn haircut I'd be pretty stressed. They can at least do things like have catered meals available everyday or have food/groceries delivered to the players weekly for them to use whichever way they want. I mean in the grand scheme of things if they doubled the pay of every minor leaguer currently in the system, how much would it really cost overall? Given the numbers Winckowski was throwing out there, probably nothing noticeable. This is awful. I knew minor leaguers got paid s*** but didn't know it was that low.

Great interview, but damn that part about minor league pay made my blood boil. Working at McDonald's is more lucrative than being a minor league baseball player. That's a joke. No wonder multi sport players choose other sports. Seriously, I hate SJWs as much as anyone, but have anyone with credibility retweet this interview and have minor league pay become a real topic. To borrow a joke from Married with Children, I made more money losing a tooth when I was a kid than these guys make in low-A.

Yeah attitude and lack of options make him destined to be removed eventually. Davis and Smith have options remaining so they are probably safe, and I don’t think they remove Urena.

Pompey has lost a lot of luster but 2019 is a season in which the team doesn’t intend on competing. Seems like a perfect opportunity to use him as a 4th outfielder and see if he turns into anything useful. But yeah he seems like the guy they will DFA since he has no options left. Phelps returning to previous form would be great. Relievers are valuable at the deadline.

Nice move. Shatkins has a great philosophy when it comes to relievers. Never spend big on them. Buy low on multiple high K guys coming off down years and if a few of them stick then you get assets for nothing. Wonder who comes off the 40 man for this.

Jed Lowrie to the Mets. I have lost track of what their infield will be now.

Dozier signs for 1/9 with the Nats. That’s a really good deal for them.

Even Bauer succumbs to SJWs. He was our last hope.

I read that he turned down $60m from the Mets. Can't really blame the owners if he turned that down and settled for $18m. But yeah, MLB apparently making record money despite poor attendance around the league. Players are eventually going to get fed up with the frugal front office's, although it seems free agents have been getting paid so far this winter.

That would be a logical spot for him.

Finally. Now maybe Martin will get traded.

Yeah and that list is going to grow. Doing a quick search of just current/recent Jays, Edwin will make over $100m by the end of 2019. Bautista is over $100m. Martin will be at $98m by the end of 2019 so he might top it depending on the contract he gets for 2020. Donaldson will be at around $77m by the end of 2019 so he has a good chance if he has a good season. JA Happ by the end of his current Yankees deal will be at $90m, and if his 2021 option vests then he will break $100m. Baseball players make more money when they are older. That's really the only downside. When you're in your 20's and want to live it up, you'll be riding buses and eating Ramen noodles until you reach the bigs, then you'll have to wait another 3 years to start making millions. Risky but the upside is greater if you end up being good.

It depends. Tim Tebow won the Heisman and lasted in the league for a couple of years before he fell off and went to baseball. According to Wiki his original contract with the Broncos only guaranteed $8.7 mil. Don't know how much he ended up walking away with. If Murray is a good QB then I agree he will make good money. The knock on him is his size and level of competition he played against in college. If he's more of a back up QB, then sure he will get paid, but not as much as if he ends up being a good MLB player. Baseball is systematically set up for players in their late 20's and 30's to get paid, where in other sports it is the opposite. So baseball does present a lot of risk for him since if he's not any good then he'll make nothing in the minors and $500k a year in the majors for 3 years before he even gets to sniff millions. That's the risk he has to weigh. I'm not sure what his baseball upside is. I remember reading somewhere that only 28 or 29 players in NFL history have ever made over $100m. In baseball it's got to be way more than that. It's about whether you want to play the long game or instant gratification. But yes, being a QB changes the game since those guys usually get paid and avoid the typical injuries that most NFL players do. If he played another position then baseball would have looked more appealing.

The Braves have developed more talent than anyone in recent years yet no one will make a stink about this. The best position player we have drafted in like 15 years is Kevin Pillar, but Shatkins gets crucified for hiring their own people.