As you may already know, the criminal trial for Eric Kay has been continued once again.
Brent Strom, the pitching coach for the Astros, basically just retired as a pitching coach.
Former major league manager Bobby Valentine ran (unsuccessfully) for Mayor of Stamford Connecticut. It was apparently a pretty close race.
Here is the off season calendar. We are basically in option and qualifying offer season for a few days this week.
Gary DiSarcina is now the Nationals’ third base coach.
The Mets now are interested in Billy Eppler for their front office position, although there are other candidates on their list, including Raquel Ferreira. Meanwhile they have officially fired acting GM Zack Scott.
The Detroit Tigers acquired catcher Tucker Barnhart from the Reds in exchange for infield prospect Nick Quintana.
Trevor Bauer decided not to opt out of his 2022 contract with the Dodgers.
Starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi will test free agency.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Cobb
Cishek
Lagares
Suzuki
D-Cell
Bundy
Fowler
Aj Ramos
All elected Free Agency today
Cobb and D-Cell I’d go after. The rest are expendable.
We don’t know yet. Cobb may be the new Bundy. At this point a year ago we were all glad we had Bundy for 2021. Is Bundy done? Or is it mechanical and could he get back to where he was in 2020? I don’t know the answers, just noting that it does get complicated.
What is the correct order of needs?
SP(s)
RP(s)
SS (Correa or Seager or someone else for less money?)
Backup Catcher
Backup OF’er
What do you think?
Since we have a couple decent relief pitchers, i would swap RP(s) and SS. I do not want to see Rengifo anywhere near there or any other starting position.
We have one RP and he is a FA.
What about C-Rod? What about Q2? What about Mayers? Could he recover his form?
Quesadilla is inconsistent . C Rod on the other hand is chronically hurt . (But, after seeing his start against the Blue jays, last year, I would LOVE for him to get healthy and be added to the rotation)
So, IMHO, The only reliever who is currently on our 40 man roster who we can count on for next year is Austin Warren.So that ain’t sayin’ much. I’m not advocating jettisoning Mayers or Quesadilla, I just think they should be option 5 or 6 out of the pen. This scenario would be very doable If we resign Raisel and find an effective LHP and an lights out RHP setup guy this offseason.
I like Austin Warren. He made himself into a legit arm. I just have a tad concern he can repeat. Nice kicker in a deal for a good starter or back end of the bullpen deal.
If you send anyone on our team who can pitch (legit arm) away in trade, where do you get the bullpen? Warren is not only a legit arm, but cheap and controlled. Those are arms you keep if you can – especially with as many ?? in the bullpen already and wanting to save money for a SP and a SP before returning to the pen.
I think there is a chance for Mayers, he had a decent last month of the season. I’d keep him as one of the arms, but not one of the end gamers.
Love C-Rod but should not be rushed. Tried hard, too much, too soon. Has a violent delivery. Did Angels overwork him after missing previous years due to other ailments?
Queso to me is a trap. Has had high walk rates in the past. There is uncertainty that he can be counted on. Just prefer to walk into opening day without question marks.
Ideally we would keep Raisel and add three new, strong arms for the pen.
I just don’t think that is realistic. I think we will need to count on either C-Rod or Mayers or perhaps Barria to deliver solid high leverage innings. We basically need at least two guys already in the fold to step up big time. I don’t see any way around that.
That looks about right to me.
D) All of the Above
This is your yearly reminder to turn on tweet notifications for Ken Rosenthal!
one of your guys is a free man 2002h………
https://www.mlb.com/news/nick-castellanos-becomes-free-agent
Good hitter no doubt, but in the field not so good. Plus he will cost a lot and there is always the age thing.
This is 2002’s dream winter where his “who cares if they can catch a baseball” outfield is all ready to be signed. Soler, Scwarber, Castellanos AND Avisail Garcia. All we have to do is sign all four and then play all four together in the outfield at the same time and our pitchers BABIP may not jump to .500.
we waited too long just like with semien.
both of them are gonna want $25M for 3 yrs 😠 😡  😠
I’d pay that.
F’n love Castellanos! I’d sign his ass in a heartbeat if his defense was above average. Plus, we already have a great DH.
Angels need one more hitter to become Fright Night ever night for the opposition. I will become unglued if we have to watch the Unproven’s; Adell and Marsh hit .230 to .240 next year. We need to contend next year.
I like Nick C too… but man, his defense isn’t even close to average, and having watched him some, that’s being generous. He is a very bad fielder. But he can hit. So can Schwarber.
Both will cost as much as a mid rotation arm though, so nah.
Right now the only thing I’m on the look out for is a QO for Raisel. I’m growing more convinced, the more I stare at the pitchers left in this “2AM at the bar” version of a free agent class, that I’d rather pay a high price for the best investment available and that’s Raisel.
I think the WS showed that closing out the game is almost more important than starting it well. Lock down Raisel first, then lets go shopping for pitching.
Give him the QO . Whether we’re able to sign him or not is another question
Agree. This is the correct order of operations.
never go full…wait, is that word allowed. 😆
While not on the banned list, I’d definitely prefer to keep it off the site.
Would never do it anyway but thanks for the reply, JJ. and duly noted.
I’d go 2-years only or the QO. While he is good, I don’t think Rasiel is a make or break player, can scoop up other filler arms while Bush and Bachman hone their craft. After Rasiel’s career year, it’s nowhere to go but down.
OK. I keep seeing people say Raisel had a career year…. can someone explain that to me? Or do I need to explain what a “career year” is? And he’s also not signing anywhere for 2 years…. because last year was a year that was similar to just about his whole career.
At 31 he put up his best stats, k/9 BB/9, whip, save percentage and other goop. Clear margin. Would you pay a soon to be 32 year old a 3 or 4 year contract? Relievers have short effectiveness lifespans. History is against him. Offer him a $35 for 3. Maybe he loves Joe enough. I’m not getting sucked in.
I dunno. This feels a lot like arguing that he’s obviously in decline because his WHIP went up from 0.913 to 0.929 and his ERA+ went from 181 to 174. “Career Year” usually means he had a 112 ERA+ for his career and then had 180 in his contract year, artificially inflating how good he looks. Other than 2019 he’s been pretty much the same pitcher.
I’ll gamble four years of Arte’s money on him, especially since we will likely have some leverage arms come up through the system in the next two years.
Wow are the Mets really being that foolish for a guy who never had a winning season with us….
I edited this comment
Thanks. That was a cool move.
The Mets are interested in Raisel?
He was talking about Eppler in his original comment.
Eppler made some very good trades.
I’ve linked both the right and left handed relievers lists in tomorrow’s links. It wasn’t quite as barren as I thought.
D Cell is clearly the class of the options, but we also need at least 3 free agents.
Please have the debate in tomorrow’s links.
Count me in on DeSclafani or Bassitt.
Count on us to have the debate in every day’s links (there is nothing else to talk about 🙂 ).
Yes, we definitely need Raisel, but I don’t think it is one or the other (Raisel or SP). We need both and hopefully will get both.
Oh yeah. Raisel. Some SP. A couple other lesser pen arms. I am wishing for all of that.
Wow. Buster Posey basically giving up a guaranteed $22 million when the Giants pick up his option an retiring while he is still the best catcher in baseball.
Such a stark contrast to other former-greats who have tarnished their careers and been a drag on their teams’ payroll.
While different circumstances, I think back to reading about Sandy Koufax walking away at age 30 after a 27 game win and Cy Young season. The legend grows when you walk away at peak.
I think Posey showed by sitting out last year that he’s really focused on being a dad.
Other than St. Louis does any team really want to sign Albert?
Does St Louis?
Swan Song?
Baltimore could let him hit HR while they rebuild. KC might have a spot for the local guy, perhaps a Miami or rebuilding Rangers squad thinks he’ll sell tickets.
He’s not horrible if used correctly. My thought is that he’s going to want to get paid Pujols money when he’s really a bench guy.
No way Grandpa signs for the paltry chump change amounts that these “process” teams would offer. It would be an insult to his greatness.
Last year was different since we were still funding his deserved earning while playing for Doyers. But that program is over now. Do you really think that any team would offer him more than a million dollars to ride the pine until the opposing Lefthanded pitcher has to face a minimum of 3 batters in an inning? Do you really think Grandpa would take less than $3 million dollars to answer the bullpen phone and assist injured players off of the field?
No way Jose Mota.
The Brewers got Gott.
Would Billy Boy shoot himself in the foot twice? Funny stuff in that he is experienced in working with hands on owners and conditioned to doing what he is told.
Having Kikuchi in the FA mix can’t be bad for us, right?
I am not sure I would target him, if I were Perry, but perhaps others might consider him as a cheaper tier option (below the Scherzer, Stroman top of the heap). He might even take something like 10M per, if he can get a longer contract.
I think it would be like Trevor Cahill v. 2.0
As I said, I don’t want to sign him. I just think having more FA arms out there means that they could be cheaper, and more willing to sign 🙂
If we give Kikuchi $10m I will lose all hope.
the more arms the better, sure. But the more quality arms the better is what we need.
I think more arms in the available FA pool, means we can be more selective. Improves the supply. Was never advocating signing Kikuchi.