The Boras free agents

[Stratos]

Looks like news here is picking up, which means things may be in a discussing stage at least a little bit, which is encouraging (better than weeks of zero news).  The Mariners rumor below could be a Boras plant for leverage.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/mariners-have-discussed-signing-matt-chapman.html

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/yankees-have-offer-out-to-blake-snell.html

[Stratos]

Interesting comments from Jed regarding Bellinger:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/cubs-chairman-on-cody-bellinger-some-discussions-but-not-a-negotiation.html

[Bertz]

The Mariners have long made a ton of sense roster-wise, but the thought was that they were crying poor because of the RSN issue.  Maybe now that that's been resolved they're ready to play in the big boy waters?

In that case seems pretty straightforward to game out:

Cubs - Bellinger

Mariners - Chapman 

Giants & Angels - Snell & Montgomery (TBD which one where)

I'd be skeptical about the Yankees jumping in.  Their payroll is $307M.  I believe they'd literally have to pay a 110% tax on additional signings, meaning Snell at a $30M AAV would cost $63M in real dollars.  George would have done that without battong an eye but Hal has not shown that level of commitment.

[Brock Beauchamp]

40 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Looks like news here is picking up, which means things may be in a discussing stage at least a little bit, which is encouraging (better than weeks of zero news).  The Mariners rumor below could be a Boras plant for leverage.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/mariners-have-discussed-signing-matt-chapman.html

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/yankees-have-offer-out-to-blake-snell.html

Hard to believe the Mariners are truly interested. They dealt for Jorge Polanco - likely to play third - and also required the Twins to take back DeSclafini as a salary-shedding move.

[Tryptamine]

I'm going to be surprised if any of them are a Cub. I think the roster likely is what it is at this point ignoring some camp invitees that end up in AAA.

[Stratos]

39 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Hard to believe the Mariners are truly interested. They dealt for Jorge Polanco - likely to play third - and also required the Twins to take back DeSclafini as a salary-shedding move.

I agree