2019-20 Offseason Rumors/General Chit-Chat

[Cubswin11]

[Regular Show]

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And the biggest offseason loser is ...

 

Colorado Rockies: The Rockies also are running into their payroll ceiling and haven't done much this offseason except alienate their franchise player and have owner Dick Monfort help make obvious that management is a real issue here. Prioritizing continuity would be a charitable way to describe the long leash given to the handful of general managers in club history, above and beyond their performance. GM Jeff Bridich has a reputation with other clubs of not being especially easy to work with, while his management of the club's payroll hasn't inspired much hope for a rebound this year.

 

After the situation with Nolan Arenado had spun out of control, Monfort proclaimed he team would win 94 games in 2020. Winning 94 would be a club record and only the third time the team would have topped 90 wins in its 28-year history. Monfort's evidence was nonexistent as the team won 71 games last year with a minus-123 run differential and no meaningful changes to the roster this year.

 

Beyond the Astros/Red Sox scandals, Arenado reporting to camp will arguably be the biggest storyline to watch in the coming weeks as this concerning situation could still get much worse.

 

Alternate Rockies offseason: The Rockies had to pick either shopping Arenado or signing him to an extension and they did both. That's not the only mistake en route to the current disaster, just the most recent one. Ian Desmond's deal (five years, $70 million) was roundly ridiculed at the time and is like watching a car crash in slow motion, posting a hearty minus-1.7 WAR in the first three years of the deal, but at least he has been consistent enough to be negative each of those three years. The complete lack of planning that led to giving Desmond that deal and then taking him, a decent defensive shortstop who is probably a better long-term fit at second or third base, and playing him exclusively at first base and the outfield, positions he had almost no experience playing, is an act of madness...

 

The Cubs are also in his offseason losers column. I predict the Rockies will be bad again and they're going to shop Arenado hard before the trade deadline. This upcoming season's trade deadline could be one of the crazier ones in MLB history...

[Cubswin11]

Pillar only got a little under $4 million from the Red Sox, really wish we could’ve been in on him for that price. If they just cut Almora that’s only like $2 mil more in salary.

[Cubswin11]

A friendly reminder that Kevin Pillar hasn't top a .300 OBP in over a half decade

A friendly reminder that’s still better than Almora

[Cubswin11]

A friendly reminder that’s still better than Almora

 

Well no, Almora's topped that in the half decade IIRC only went below once. Anyway, the guy Pillar would most be taking PAs from, Ian Happ, is probably alot better at him right now especially on offense

OBP is only one metric to judge their value on, Almora is at .301 the last two years combined, Pillar is at .285 but Pillar has a higher wOBA and wRC+ in that period and ever since the BABIP dried up around June 2018 Almora is running a .280 and .270 OBP from June and July 2018-present.

 

And how would Pillar take ABs away from Happ when Happ is clearly better vs RHP and Pillar would just be the RHH caddy and late inning defense guy?

[Post Count Padder]

Jeremy Hellickson is calling it quits. Some good years here and there. FIP caught up with him after his first couple seasons.

[Andy]

Teams are now 5-0 in arb hearings lol...Eduardo Rodríguez and Josh Hader lost over the past couple days

Obligatory 'horsefeathers him he's a racist' stuff aside, if Hader couldn't beat the Brewers in an arbitration case when the way they've used him the last couple of years makes self-evident how valuable he is, then something needs re-examination.

[Cubswin11]

That ruling probably cost Hader $12-20 million on the low side over the next 3 years while he’s in arbitration. There was about a $2.5 million difference this year. Edited February 15, 2020 by Cubswin11

[Cubswin11]

[Post Count Padder]

I'm annoyed I have to hate Brock Holt now. I've followed him going back to his summer playing for the State College Spikes when I was working at the local paper.

[Post Count Padder]

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[Named After Maddux]

With all the SP injuries to the Yankees and Angels coupled with the inevitable move to get under the LT, I’d wonder what Q could bring back. It seems like we talked about it all offseason and the Cubs FO just didn’t get substantial offers to move anyone, but there’s a lot of urgency from teams.

Jettisoning Q would really affect the SP depth and counter all the talk about competing/running the team back out there (through walls) with Ross, but I’d be very interested in seeing if they could acquire Joe Musgrove. He’s cheap and controlled so Pittsburgh would need to get similar controllable value. I wonder if there’s players in the group of Bote, Almora (if they buy the stance changes), relievers out of options (Underwood, Sadler), SP down in the depth chart (Alzolay, Rea, Tyson Miller) that could interest the Pirates. He’s not an all world SP, but he’s pretty intriguing.

[Backtobanks]

With all the SP injuries to the Yankees and Angels coupled with the inevitable move to get under the LT, I’d wonder what Q could bring back. It seems like we talked about it all offseason and the Cubs FO just didn’t get substantial offers to move anyone, but there’s a lot of urgency from teams.

Jettisoning Q would really affect the SP depth and counter all the talk about competing/running the team back out there (through walls) with Ross, but I’d be very interested in seeing if they could acquire Joe Musgrove. He’s cheap and controlled so Pittsburgh would need to get similar controllable value. I wonder if there’s players in the group of Bote, Almora (if they buy the stance changes), relievers out of options (Underwood, Sadler), SP down in the depth chart (Alzolay, Rea, Tyson Miller) that could interest the Pirates. He’s not an all world SP, but he’s pretty intriguing.

 

With all of the injuries, I keep wondering why Theo can't trade Chatwood to clear salary. We wouldn't get much, but all we need to do is dump his salary essentially.

[Backtobanks]

From MLBTR: "Following injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton, the Yankees have reached out to the Mets to inquire on the availability of left-hander Steven Matz, per Ken Davidoff and Mike Puma of the New York Post. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that while there’s been contact between the two teams, however, a deal is quite unlikely."

 

If the Mets won't trade with the Yankees, there ought to be a way we could get Matz either in a trade with the Mets or a 3-way deal involving Quintana/Chatwood

[jersey cubs fan]

From MLBTR: "Following injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton, the Yankees have reached out to the Mets to inquire on the availability of left-hander Steven Matz, per Ken Davidoff and Mike Puma of the New York Post. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that while there’s been contact between the two teams, however, a deal is quite unlikely."

 

If the Mets won't trade with the Yankees, there ought to be a way we could get Matz either in a trade with the Mets or

 

wait for it

 

 

wait for it

 

 

 

 

 

 

wait for it

a 3-way deal

ah there it is, now take us home

 

involving Quintana/Chatwood

[Backtobanks]

From MLBTR: "Following injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton, the Yankees have reached out to the Mets to inquire on the availability of left-hander Steven Matz, per Ken Davidoff and Mike Puma of the New York Post. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that while there’s been contact between the two teams, however, a deal is quite unlikely."

 

If the Mets won't trade with the Yankees, there ought to be a way we could get Matz either in a trade with the Mets or a 3-way deal involving Quintana/Chatwood

 

Sorry for the suggestion, I forgot that our FO hasn't returned from their 6 month hiatus.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

it's okay, we all make bad posts sometimes

[Post Count Padder]

Add another arm back into the mix

 

The Orioles have decided against carrying both of their Rule 5 selections from the December draft, GM Mike Elias told media members including Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter). The departures of righties Brandon Bailey and Michael Rucker will open two 40-man roster spots.

[NonProfitCow]

Yairo Munoz should sign here to get his revenge

No takebacks

[Derwood]

Some of you might be surprised to hear that any extension talks between Indians and Lindor have gone nowhere and he shut it down to get ready for the season. Iunno if Theo knows this or not, but we'd get over Hoerner, Marquez, and Davis as quickly as they were annointed for yet another MVP candidate on the ML roster. Hell, I bet three new guys would be annointed as The Future by midsommar to go with a monster of a ML roster

 

What gives you any indication that Lindor would sign an extension with the Cubs?

[Derwood]

What gives you any indication that Lindor would sign an extension with the Cubs?

 

Extension? Give me those sweet sweet two years of powerful control before FA and we can see from there

 

Follow up question: what makes you think the Ricketts would be willing to pay him what he'll win in arbitration?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[Tim]

That's....more than I was expecting to give up.

[Cubswin11]

Top DFA candidates have to be a Descalso (especially for Kipnis), any of the trio of the vet RP guys like Sadler, Winkler and Tepera and maybe Maples and Robel are at least considered, IMO. I’d assume Underwood and Rea are safe just because of the ability to start.

 

[UMFan83]

Top DFA candidates have to be a Descalso (especially for Kipnis), any of the trio of the vet RP guys like Sadler, Winkler and Tepera and maybe Maples and Robel are at least considered, IMO. I’d assume Underwood and Rea are safe just because of the ability to start.

 

 

This might be dumb logic but even though Descalso sucks I’d think you want to have all the major league caliber players as possible on your 40 to replace those that go down with COVID.