Bertz

Even if we take Bob's words at face value, which lol, it could as easily be urgency rather than the desperation it's being framed as. Every day that passes it's less useful to trade Bellinger. It would have been ideal before the non tender deadline to hold onto Tauchman. It'd be bordering on useless if you can't get a deal done until January.

I hate appeal to authority but I do think it's telling that the Angels nabbed him on a fairly reasonable contract and not a smart team. It says something about how sustainable what he did in Houston is viewed IMO.

I think you're overrating how much separation there is between these guys. I was a Kikuchi guy too but he's 34 and as recently as July wasn't viewed much differently than Nick Pivetta.

It's not impossible, like 1908 pointed out the Comcast deal is in flux right now, but this is most likely just Brett being a ninny. The team has, if payroll is flat, $55M to add a SP or two, completely remake the bench, and fix the bullpen. You start doing the math and it's tight. Of course you're going to e.g. avoid giving Corbin Burnes $30M, of course you're going to explore trades to address certain needs cheaply, etc.

Don't Like this. Though it being the Angels provides some reassurance about how much we're missing out.

I wouldn't be surprised if they added two RP from here, with the second being lower salary like I have above. While the group is light on options, it's also light on salary. Pearson at a $1.4M is projected as highest paid player currently. While no options obviously means you can't shuttle them up and down, cutting anyone who goes all Neris on us is still fairly painless unless it's Holmes. And yeah I'm not too worried about being too left handed. If the Cards still had prime Arenado and Goldschmidt I might reconsider, but as is I don't think having a rotation with 4 lefties is any worse than one with 4 righties.

My mind is on something like this currently - Sign Yusei Kikuchi 3/$60M - Sign Clay Holmes 2/$20M - Sign Danny Jansen 2/$16 - Sign Josh Rojas 1/$5 - Sign Randal Grichuk 1/$5 - Trade Kevin Alcantara and Javier Assad for Jesus Luzardo and Andrew Nardi Luzardo is a risk and coming off of a mostly lost year, but a year ago at this time was viewed as a #1 starter. It's the type of gamble you can only feel comfortable making because of the depth in front of him and behind him. If Luzardo rebounds, adding him and Kikuchi gives the team a real chance at a best in the league type rotation. Holmes gives us the legit closer we've lacked the last few years, while Nardi is merely a matchup lefty but one hell of one. On top of what's already in house the pen again looks like it has a chance to be a weapon. The depth looks great, there's a much better chance of this group surviving three guys going down at once than there was last year. The position players are all about adding depth and complimentary skills. Rojas is a mediocre lefty bat and strong defensive infielder. His role is subbing in for Paredes or Hoerner when we want the lineup to be more left handed and/or complimenting Shaw if someone on the infield goes on the IL. Grichuk has settled in as one of the best lefty mashers in the league. Jansen is far more talented than most backup catchers but has durability concerns preventing him from demanding starter level work. This lineup, particularly when you add in what's at Iowa, is ludicrously deep and should be as well equipped as anyone to survive the six month grind.

I'd guess he gets something like 2 years and $6M per year. His numbers are solid, and he's got plenty of late inning experience, which does have value. But the guys who get closer to 10M per year miss a lot more bats or generate a stupid number of groundballs. Like Neris was a disaster but he had a 30% strikeout rate the 3 years before coming here, Finnegan is at 23% the last three years.

Feels like we can mostly, though not totally, write this possibility off after the Tauchman news.

His velo was fine so I wouldn't be super worried about his second half numbers. Likely just overperformed a bit in the first half and under in the second. The reason he got non tendered is likely just salary. Guys who rack up saves tend to have their salaries get really juiced in arbitration. Finnegan was due almost $9M in arb this year, and is realistically probably more of a $6-7M/year type arm.

Wow, shocked by Tauchman. He had no fit on the team but I assumed he had comfortably done enough the last two years to have a little trade value.

Josh Rojas is left handed and a plus defender at 2B and 3B. League average hitter vs. RHP. I'd be pretty down to hand him a bench role

Presumably the first of 3ish

Hmm okay fair enough. It sounds close enough to what I expected to question too much. Good find. But to your question, players can agree to a minor league deal even if they're out of options. In this case Thaiss' choices are the deal being reported or gambling that he can get a full time MLB roster spot. The $400K is MUCH better than standard AAA salary, so it's a smart way to hedge his bets. HOWEVER, the Cubs can't call him up and down throughout the year. Once they call him up he stays up unless they cut him (and pay him the remainder of that $1M salary).

This seems oddly specific, but I haven't seen any reporting. Did one of the beat guys say it on the radio? But generally split contracts are a minor league contract where the guy makes well above the typical minor league rate while in the minors and a relatively low major league rate if he's in MLB. So in this scenario he'd go to AAA, make a prorated $400K as long as he's down there, and if/when he gets to MLB make prorated $1M (a couple hundred grand higher than the league minimum).

This feels shockingly reasonable. Honestly I'd probably consider it for even just one of the relievers.

One of these is Dansby Swanson the last three years, the other is Willy Adames .236/.314/.443, 108 wRC+ .255/.323/.419, 108 wRC+

Unless you think Bird Flu is going to force us to shelter in place again there's zero reason to consider this a possibility.

I think Bellinger is close enough to value neutral that the return might not be another big contract it might just be some modest prospects or roster filler. Whether you need something of substance back from him or not depends on the timing of a deal. If you get something done tomorrow you'd probably just want to move him and pocket the cash. If a trade doesn't come together until February you probably want someone back because there might not even be $25M worth of free agents left who fit on the roster.

A few more teams that might make sense Red Sox - Have a lot of youth in both the OF and at 1B, some of it has performed and some hasn't. Bellinger could cover basically whoever is looking most like a bust at the moment (currently would be Rafaela, but might not be long term). They also struck out a ton last year and could use a reprieve Mariners - Also struck out way too much last year. Also have some questions in their outfield (Arozarena should probably be a DH, and do you *really* trust Victor Robles?) Nats - Sounds like they are considering doing something splashy akin to when they signed Jayson Werth ahead of the Harper/Strasburg/Rendon wave of prospects hit. Bellinger could be that veteran presence without the long term commitment, or one of two moves to really hammer home legitimacy. They project terribly in CF currently

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/scouting-the-players-added-to-40-man-rosters/ It's not a full team re-rank but Longenhagen dropped Caissie down to a 45 FV.

I don't think so. I think taking back another contract that is inflated (but to be very clear, the player is still productive) should be in bounds, but there's no reason to act desperately. Bellinger's a good player and he's not a terrible fit on the roster. I'd prefer if he were RHH and I'd prefer if we could count on him for more dongs, but holistically he's not really any better or worse than FA alternatives like Teoscar Hernandez or Anthony Santander. For instance, someone brought up Schwarber for Bellinger. That feels like the type of thing that feels more appropriate. Like I'd say no to that specific move, but it feels imminently reasonable.

Right now they have (presumably) $50M+ to make a couple additions to the bench and to throw at pitching. It's a smidge tight, but you could absolutely do something like $25M SP $10M RP $15M across three bench guys Trading Bellinger gives you some breathing room, but any backfill in free agency is also going to cost between $20-25M per year, so not much.