Hot Stove 2023-2024

Gonsolin is out for 2024 iirc

options on tim anderson and whit merrifield declined

ilb fave mark canha dealt to detroit

bellinger and stroman opted out. not too sure about the latter doing so -- he was so terrible in the second half of the season that i'm skeptical someone will offer him the $21m he would have made with the cubs? guess he wants more years tho, and i suppose everyone needs pitching

Prob more years & lower aav in case he gets injured again

David Ross out in Chicago, Craig Counsell in

Ohhh that mother fucker

That is not going to make him any friends

Craig Counsell's $8 million-a-year deal with the Chicago Cubs is an industry-shaking deal. In recent years, multiple coaches have pointed out that it's more lucrative financially to take a job with a college program than an MLB team. Counsell's deal could help change that in MLB.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 6, 2023

Three new managers hired on the same day today! (Cubs, Guardians, Mets)

stephen vogt is a good dude; hope he does well

I believe in him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azTGrocYlu4

David Ross's Cubs exceeded my expectations this year. Is he a weirdo behind the scenes or something?

Heyman said it wasn’t anything he did so much as the Cubs jumping on the chance to have Counsell

WAIVERS: #Rockies have claimed LHP Jalen Beeks off waivers from the #Rays.

— MLB Transaction Tracker (@MLBMovesTracker) November 7, 2023

jal-jal beeks

OFFICIAL: the Angels have hired Ron Washington as the Club’s manager. pic.twitter.com/NGWV6X10PW

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) November 8, 2023

Happy for Wash, sad for Barves infielders.

happy for wash, but that is not a situation in which anyone can succeed

there are managers teams will fite for/fire people simply to get (joe madden once, craig counsell now)

(bob melvin may think he's in this category, but he's not)

there are managers (of color) who have done well but, you know, maybe they're not quite up to the task, if you know what i mean (cora, roberts)

there are managers (of color) who are obviously simply caretakers until the team might have a chance to compete (wash, rick renteria, pedro grifol, bo porter, luis rojas). jim riggleman is white but remains the purest expression of this variety of manager

there are managers (of color) who've spent decades in the minors and sometimes they randomly get a shot (charlie montoyo, charlie mendoza, oliver marmol, dave martinez)

there are *scrappy* white managers who've spent decades in the minors and sometimes they randomly get a shot (snitker, schumaker, rob thomson, shildt, torey lovullo)

there are pitching coaches who are in way over their heads (bud black, ray miller)

there are (white) former catchers who get hired with no experience whatsoever (matheny, ross, vogt, cash, schneider, gonna throw hinch in here although he had *some* experience, gonna throw boone in here although he wasn't a catcher)

there are the (white) young geniuses (cash, kapler, maybe rocco?)

there are (white) managers who have somehow survived being terrible for quite a long time (shelton, servais)

have i missed anything (beyond legends like dusty and bochy)

Bud Black, it's hard to know where to fit him in.

pitching coaches who are in way over their heads
and/or
managers who have somehow survived being terrible for quite a long time

imo

(not that i blame bud black -- the rockies are a garbage organization)

That was meant as a joke having to do with his name.

ah

Welcome to Detroit, Jason Benetti.

Something I had completely forgotten till I saw the headline on Posnanski's post today (and then immediately remembered): Ron Washington delivers one of my two of three favourite lines in Moneyball, "It's incredibly hard."

(aside: That actor (Brent Jennings) who portrays Wash had one of the leading roles in AMC/Hulu's Lodge 49 and was amazing.)

(said character also coaches the lodge's softball team in perhaps a nod to Jenning's role in MBall)

Anyone else enter the MLBTR free agent contest? It’s kind of a crapshoot, because even the experts get it wrong more than right, but I still think it’s fun

Nola staying in Philly for 7Y/$172M.

Not a bad deal. Makes sense for all parties.

i had no skin in the game, but was rooting for Nola to be a Philly for life (obv could still possibly be traded).
also i am now 1/1 on the mlbtr contest.

Trade news, per ESPN sources:

Arizona Diamondbacks acquire third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

Seattle Mariners acquire reliever Carlos Vargas and catcher Seby Zavala.

Diamondbacks get their third baseman. Mariners move money off the books and get a live arm and backup catcher.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 22, 2023

the cardinals signed lance lynn, who in 2023 had the second worst HR/9 since 2000 (worst was jose lima, 2000, 2.20 HR/9). however, he does eat a lot of innings, really painful eatings. like miles mikolas, another guy who you can count on to throw 190 mediocre innings. to shore up the staff, yesterday the cardinals signed mediocre innings-eater kyle gibson

the 2024 innings are being gobbled up in stl, we are good to go on the innings being covered and played in a professional manner

I'm seein' triple - three James Shields!

hey when you gotta big game coming up...

of course i could be way wrong on one or more of them (lynn/gibson/mikolas) - all three have been effective in the not too distant past, and i thought wainwright was completely cooked several years before he retired, and he ended up wiggling his way out of a ton of jams almost to the end

I don’t get that Suarez deal for Seattle

Salary dump

dipoto gets antsy if he doesn't make a trade every so often

also suarez really strikes out a *lot*

He does but he’s a great third baseman and though he wasn’t great at the plate last season (in 2022 he had a wrc+ of 130) he hit 22 hrs and drove in 96 runs. That’s a lot on a team that doesn’t hit well.

Exactly. Like congrats on reducing your strikeouts, but you’ve also reduced your overall production in the process. Maybe if he’s a corner outfielder you can easily find another guy; but at 3b?

Passan (?) said that the Mariners intend to use Luis Urias there. Now look: I like Luis Urias and I liked him in his half season in Boston especially when he hit a grand slam off Gerrit Cole even though he was playing through injury most of the season & had terrible numbers -he was great in the WBC. But they need to replace that production and that’s not it.

Could be freeing up money for a splash they intend to make in free agency?

I wish that was true. :( if it happens I’ll be delighted but…

What!

Sonny Gray and the Cardinals are expected to finalize a deal today, via league sources

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 27, 2023

3/$75m for Sonny Gray. The stove is lukewarm

Gibby!

https://nypost.com/2023/11/22/sports/mets-hiring-ex-blue-jays-manager-john-gibbons-as-bench-coach/

You can pretty much pencil them in for the World Series.

Sonny Gray has been surprisingly good and durable for nearly his entire career, that's a good pickup for just a three year investment.

I guess the Cards are looking to go worst to first in 2024, and why not, the division is winnable.

Definitely a good pitcher. When I saw he finished second in the Cy Young vote, I didn't think to look at his record. But we're truly deep in the new era when a guy who goes 8-8 can finish that high, even minus the dominance of a deGrom or King Felix, with the voters looking past the W/L to accurately assess his true value.

gray is a good signing but i'm not really convinced that gray + gibson + lynn is going to completely solve their rotation problems from last season (not to mention their offensive issues). i doubt they'll come in last in the division again but they don't seem considerably better than the cubs/brewers/reds at this point (sorry pirates).

feels like the exact same kinda mid market 3rd-ish starter type deal they've already failed on a few times w/ mike leake & steven matz. but i guess gray is just better. probably...

I wonder if he needs an intrepeter? I know a guy...

Monty dropped Boras

LHP Jordan Montgomery has hired Wasserman’s Joel Wolfe & Nick Chanock as his agents, per sources.

Montgomery was one of the Boras Four, who were unsigned late into free agency.

I projected he would get 5 yrs, $106M and he eventually signed for 1 yr, $25M w/Arizona on March 26.

— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) April 11, 2024

i would have too

Kudos to gyac and the others who saw the Sale trade as potentially a good thing for Atlanta--he's been their most durable starter so far and is pitching well. Checked Grissom, and he's having a good season in the minors--and is on the verge of being brought up--but Sale has really helped fill the void created by Strider's injury. I'm even starting to wonder if he can get his HOF case back on track--I've got like seven rookie cards! He'd really have to have a four- or five-year run and pitch till he's 40.

Grissom is going to debut Friday after being struck down by the flu virus ripping through the Woosox (Red Sox triple A team) clubhouse. Anyway Sale has been great, but like Glasnow, the problem isn’t if he can be great, it’s can he stay healthy.

Anyway excited to see Grissom when he finally debuts, the 2B spot has been a dead zone for production all season (apart from when Connor Wong plays there)

Btw clem I am sorry for ignoring your email the other day but I was sick and in and out of sleep and just remembered it now!

Also I should point out Grissom should have started the season on the big league team but he picked up a hamstring strain in spring training and was rehabbing in triple A to make up for the lost time.

Seems weird to say that when his two highest paid teammates were flying cross country for literal months driving up their own pay by leveraging the demand from other teams, and one of them gave a deal to same team to stack a roster around him…some free agents aren’t in high demand full stop and others simply aren’t getting what they’re after. Snell was reported to be asking for $270m for 9 years, not that many teams that could pay that want to (0 at this count). I heard the Yankees made him an offer before they signed Stroman but at this stage taking on Snell on even an shorter contract with higher aav for example when they are over the highest tax threshold means they’re paying double for him. That’s an ask.

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Friday, March 1, 2024 8:01 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Snell for nine(!) years at $270 million(!!) -- it's nice to dream big and i guess it only takes one sucker. weird to say that about a two-time Cy winner he's dancing on a knife's edge, feel like he could tilt over into an annual 4.50 ERA guy vv fast.

― omar little, Friday, March 1, 2024 9:53 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

seems very difficult to have a -0.6 bWAR through only 11.2 IP but Blake has done it.

Ikr, it’s early but it looks bad, he’s probably not going to pitch a start till late May/June now. Who knows.

Also early, but Jordan Hicks’ success as a SP so far has really surprised me too!

A lot of Jays fans, me included, were clamoring for him to be given the closer role last year ahead of Romano.

Grissom is going to debut Friday after being struck down by the flu virus ripping through the Woosox (Red Sox triple A team) clubhouse.

I love someone with deep enthusiasm and knowledge, gyac, but you've become a total sicko :)

I’m not even joking but like

The other night I was following a game on my phone and the following conversation took place

ILX USER SHARIVARI: what game are you watching? Who are the Sea Dogs?
Me: the Red Sox double A team? You know, with the big three?
IUS: I don’t know
Me: Mayer, Teel, Anthony? Roman Anthony?
IUS: I can’t believe you deny being a Red Sox fan

😞

Clemenza high on Sale after one month is peak... something.

As gyac notes, his health his paramount factor. Sale has only pitched 187 IP from 2020-2024 (3.84 ERA/3.9 cumulative fWAR for that span).

Compared to workhorses like Wheeler, Burnes, Nola, Webb, Gausman, Castillo who all *each* have pitched 640-690IP over that same span, all with lower ERAs and amassing between 14.5 - 20.7 fWAR between each of them...

I'm wondering if he may even have an innings limit due to lack of endurance. Will be curious what happens in July if miraculously he's still healthy and Atlanta is in the hunt.

I actually think the Strider injury makes Sale’s health far more important than it might otherwise have necessitated; the Braves got a highest-ceiling starter with health being the main thing holding him back in exchange for a player who was blocked from their team. Now thankfully Fried seems to have pulled out of his early season nosedive but yeah, Sale staying healthy until at least the deadline has become extremely necessary in a way that it wasn’t when he signed.

Agreed to terms on a lifetime contract with the @Mets, with a signing bonus of extra biscuits. I will now open it up for questions. pic.twitter.com/74f7WHM1Yh

— Buddy (@MetsVetDog) May 3, 2024

There's also other action on the stove regarding a certain .400 hitter.

Clemenza high on Sale after one month is peak... something.

Oh, I know, I'm jumping the gun as always. I just wasn't sure if he'd be effective at all, for even a few starts. His ERA since his last good year in 2018 was over 4.00 coming into 2024, and he's a year older. I definitely didn't expect him to be leading the Braves in IP, even just barely into May.

Maybe they'll have to literally sit him down for a month if they view him as key to post-season success.

Friars get Arraez, fish get Dillon Head, Woo Suk-Go, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella.

I'm a real Dillon Head... I even like the early '80s albums

Lol

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5553919/2024/06/11/mlb-trade-deadline-rumors-50-days-out/

Luis Robert to the Mariners is too perfect a fit so naturally I expect him to end up a Cub or something. Goldy trade makes sense for the Cardinals but…his numbers aren’t great and he looks kind of cooked?

will be sad to see alonso guy, but he also turned down 7/158 so

i still predict the white sox are going to ask too much for luis robert and a trade won't happen. but i also predicted the reds would win the nl central this year so who knows