The 2021-2022 Non-Fungible Hot Stove Thread (Presented by Monkeyjizz)

See ya, Buster. Hell of a player...

BREAKING NEWS: Sources tell The Athletic that Buster Posey will announce his retirement tomorrow. More to come...

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) November 3, 2021

anyone know why?

Might as well go out relatively healthy after a strong season. Maybe ESPN or TBS made him an offer?

Rolling lockout thred

Tsuyoshi Shinjo was introduced as the new manager of the Nippon-Ham Fighters today.

He told reporters he wanted to be addressed as Big Boss. pic.twitter.com/iRmdPQLK84

— Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) November 4, 2021

haha, i love it

for non-gamers, that's a metal gear reference

big boss is 6'3"
https://i.imgur.com/7ftrBeE.png

eduardo rodriguez to the tigers, five years/upper $70s M

are the tigers going for it next year? i felt their their run last season was pretty flukey.

rumor has it that they’re close on correa as well

they were awful in april, essentially .500 the rest of the way. seems reasonable that some good free agents could get them toward upper-80s wins

gonna have to cut miggy loose at some point tho

he's due!

i just notice the hot stove is sponsored by "monkeyjizz"

This thing doesn't pay for itself!

Thor to LAA 1/21

I don't really get it...he's not gonna give you a ton of innings this year. Can't see him going deep into October if they get there. They got free of the Pujols contract and decided to replace it with this? Not sure they're gonna actually compete unless they blow past the luxury tax now

esp with a pick attached to him... MLBTR had predicted he would take the QO since, i assume, his value is somewhere below the 18MM. dude has huge upside, but not worth that much when you consider the uncertainty and draft pick

no idea how to check this but there can’t be too many Qualified free agents to be offered a one-year deal — who gives up a top draft pick for so little?

Tbf they only lose their second pick

yankees designate clint frazier, rougned odor and tyler wade

rip

Clint has CTE and its pretty obvious

such flow, tho

Had to google what happened to Frazier. Sounds p scary. Had no idea.

so that Franco contract is something else!

whoooooooooooooa what a deal for the rays!!!!??

Seventy games into his Major League career, Rays shortstop Wander Franco has agreed to a precedent-setting 11-year, $182MM contract extension, according to multiple reports. The contract comes with a $25MM club option for an additional season and a series of $3MM escalators based on MVP voting that bring its maximum value up to $223MM over 12 years. He’s represented by agent Manny Paula.

i guess Acuna got 8 years, $100M (which also seems like a complete skill) before he hit 1 year of service time, so this is an improvement on that. but Franco is about as can't miss as it gets

fantastic deal for the rays because he will be very good trade bait if they need to refresh their farm anytime in the next several years

matz to cardinals

Deal is pending physical. First: @JeffPassan. https://t.co/iAlXczzT4D

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 24, 2021

seems like the impending lockout is speeding up the market this year compared to the slogs of last couple years

Nothing to do with anything, and I totally understand, but the lengths a site like mlb.com has to go to with regards to content in the off-season always makes me laugh. Every day, there's a variation on this kind of piece:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-teams-reasons-to-be-thankful-2021

Piece I'd actually like to read: "The One Guy on Each Team All His Teammates Secretly Hate."

starling marte, mark canha and eduardo escobar all to the mets

Matz really hurt him, didn’t he?!

would seem to suggest that conforto is gone, and i could see them non-tendering dom smith (not that it would cost much to keep him)

Dom Smith seemed to have figured it all out in 2020 only to forget it all in 2021. Still rooting for the guy though.

corey kluber to tampa

didn't expect that.
next few days will likely be nutty as everyone tries to sign before the cba expires.

long-term deal from the Twins for Byron Buxton

Marcus Semien is close to a deal with the Texas Rangers

I assume they're offering mountains more than anyone else, because that seems like a terrible choice otherwise.

Yeah, if you look at the rest of the roster it is really hard to understand what the idea is there. They're years away.

175 mil for semien, 100 for buxton

avisail garcia to the marlins

I'll be interested to hear what the Jays offered (if they did). He just opted out of a potential 100-win team for a team coming off 100 losses, and he didn't end up back home, either.

jays are probably better off saving that money to spend on vlad/bo/pitching, i would think

Ya. I see the jays offering a fair deal (like 4 years) and saying they understand if he goes for a larger deal elsewhere since they need to focus on pitching etc. I guess he wanted to play SS again too - so I was surprised to see the rangers weee still talking to story.

And also they just spent that money on pitching! Gausman for 5 years, 110m.
Bummed this likely means the end of Ray here tho.
I wonder if they jays liked Gausman overall better for the next 5 years or if they just like that contract better then what Ray will likely land. I know the jays had been high on Gausman for a while now.

ray has had a lot of ups and downs -- he was great this year and was great in 2017 -- but i'm not so sure he's a great long-term bet

anyway look at the jays having a plan and executing it imo

also the fact that they managed to snag semien and ray at their most economical moments speaks well to the jays' front office

Semien was a goddamned gift in every way last year.

I like Ray a lot better than Gausman but Ray is probably looking for a $200M deal and Gausman cost half that, so I get the logic. Berrios/Ryu/Gausman/Manoah is a more than solid rotation.

Max Scherzer and the Mets are finalizing $130M, 3-year deal. Minor details to go only.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 29, 2021

well all right then

angry/upset Steve Cohen sure is something

Mets and Rangers spending a lot of money to miss the playoffs in 2022.

How many grand slams to relief pitchers will Scherzer give up this year, though.

damn! did not expect Scherzer to get $43M/year at 37 years old. then again, i guess he hasn't had a subpar season since like...2011?

and even that was only subpar by his standards - i'll take a 3.70 FIP for most seasons

I guess if Cohen wants to recreate the 1993 Mets, he's going to need his Bret Saberhagen to go with his Vince Coleman.

the pirates have countered by signing jerad eickhoff, who has a 6.48 ERA over the past four seasons

robbie ray to the mariners sounds like a done deal

I keep watching all these pitchers I want the angels to sign go somewhere else

No way they couldn't have outbid Seattle there

Troutani is never making it to the playoffs

BREAKING: Star shortstop Corey Seager and the Texas Rangers are in agreement on a 10-year, $325 million deal, sources familiar with the situation tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 29, 2021

wow

Correa's getting a billion then

By my calculations that means Seager will be the starting 3B for the Yanks in 2025.

Am I reading this right--Seattle got Ray for 5y/115m? Five more million that the Jays are paying Gausman? That can't be right.

By some measures, they were pretty similar last year:

https://www.fangraphs.com/warleaders.aspx?season=2021&team=all&type=2

I think the jays like Gaus better tbh. They also get the bonus of saving $5M, getting a comp pick for Ray and not having to give KG a NTC and opt-out.

To my eyes Ray is better and I’m surprised the M’s got him for that price.

Also can’t believe what the Rangers are up to. Spending half a billion on two short stops?! And they still have no pitching plus John Grey. I don’t see them playing much better than .500 and as far as I’m aware they don’t have a huge prospect crop about to break through. The timing feels all sorts of off.

Seager and Semien would be the best offensive option at pretty much any position they've got. Semien played great 2B this year.

I’m wondering where they play who, because Semien said he’d wanted to play SS wherever he wound up.

Seager's never played an inning of 2B in the majors or minors. I think there's more of a chance he plays 3B than 2B, but I guess we'll see. Sounds like they want Kiner-Falefa to play 3B which suggests to me that Seager stays at SS.

Well I hope someone told Semien the plan before he signed!

Their top hitting prospect Josh Jung is also a 3B/SS fwiw

So many of these moves seem weird, not just from the perspective of the teams but also the players, that it's probably the oldest story there is: pay me an extra dollar, and that's where I'm going.

I get that up to a point, but in the everyday world, don't most of us place great weight on where we'll be happiest--and if the money's comparable, that becomes the determinative factor? You would think that when you're dealing with sums of money exponentially (x exponentially) larger, that would be even more true--taking the lesser offer won't entail even minor adjustments to the way you live. But it's not.

who knows wtf TX is up to. this may work out moderately in the short-term but unless they have infinite money they seem to still be doomed

weird and refreshing to see a bad team try to get better

fwiw eno sarris had an athletic story comparing ray/gausman/stroman that puts them all pretty close

The Tigers (who just signed Baez) were headed in the right direction last year, right?

i feel like their hot streak last season was a bit of a fluke – but they are definitely heading in the right direction. Some of the young guys they have up, or coming up soon off the top of my head: Skubal, Mize, Baddoo and Torkelson. a decent enough young core to build around imho.

Major League Baseball announced a retroactive 20-game suspension without pay for Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna, as per the terms of the MLB – MLBPA Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Ozuna’s suspension was retroactively served during his time on Administrative Leave at the end of this past season; he’ll be eligible to return to the field starting in 2022. He will forfeit twenty games’ salary, as his previous Administrative Leave placement had been paid pending the results of the league’s investigation.

Ozuna was arrested on May 29 after police responded to a domestic disturbance at his residence. Court filings at the time indicated that the responding officers saw Ozuna place his hands around his wife’s neck, throw her against a wall and strike her with a cast that was on his left hand. (He had fractured two fingers in a game the week before and was on the injured list at the time).

Felony charges originally brought against Ozuna were dropped in early August, but prosecutors moved forward with a pair of misdemeanor charges. In early September, Ozuna agreed to enter into a three-to-six month domestic violence intervention program that could see those charges dropped if he completes all the required measures. The domestic violence policy allows the league to impose discipline even in the absence of criminal charges.

Ozuna signed a four-year, $65MM contract with the Braves last offseason. He remains under contract through 2024.

oh, i forgot Riley Greene!

i can't believe that either side of the tigers/baez deal was able to sign the contract w/ a straight face. will he have an OBP over .300 in any season there? will they ever finish above .500?

you could have an hours long debate about which of the contracts signed so far will look the worst in 4 years. could legit offer up 5+ options and there's still several big contracts left to be signed

i don’t think it’s *that* bad. only goes through his age 34 season, he can still hit dingers, he’s good defensively. i don’t think $23m/year is too out of line for that, if you’re unwilling to pay a lot more for correa

otoh steamer has him at just 2 WAR in year one, so yeah maybe

The deal is too long and could blow up, but if they get 2018-19 Baez or Mets Baez then it looks pretty good. Their existing SS situation was pretty bad.

these deals always more or less make sense when you do the WAR calculations and what not, the front offices and agents are all working off the same data. but obv we know most of these contracts go south way before the gradual WAR regression tables want us to believe, and these teams are only handing out whoppers this offseason. baez could be good for the tigers for a few years, he could also be horrible and useless with a contract further underwater than a shipwreck 12 months from now and nobody would be surprised. best of luck to both parties!

The Rangers hands down makes the least sense to me.

yes i would agree w/ that

i can’t get too worked up about deals that don’t extend into the players’ late 30s

like, baez will be overpaid, and probably sooner than one might hope. but i don’t expect that playing him will actively make the team worse, as has happened with miggy and prince albert for years on end

baez def the kind of player who could be cooked at like age 31 (two years from now), which is what happens w/ a lot of these deals that have presumed downside baked into the players mid to late 30s except then it turns out the player is a pumpkin almost instantaneously after the ink dries. jordan zimmerman was a 5 win player at age 28, a 3 win player at age 29, and then tigers signed him for his "prime years" and he never put up more than 1.5 WAR and was a money pit the entire time.

i understand the argument for why baez could be good for the next several years, he's an athletic up the middle player etc. but you're also banking almost entirely on that athleticism holding up for at least half the deal so that he's still a plus defender and baserunner, and/or his hitting not regressing to way below what is acceptable from a full time player let alone one being paid $23m per year. maybe it all goes right and he's giving them a good 3 or 4 WAR per year until he's 32-33... but given the history of how these big free agent deals go i would bet against that.

um

Major League Baseball secretly used 2 different types of baseballs last season

(i was able to get around the paywall by adding to pocket)

somehow when you sign a big free agent contract you immediately become half as good as you were for your previous team, somebody should look into this and see what the deal is

btw roberto perez just became the pirates’ highest-paid player (1 yr/$5m)

he is a career .206 hitter heading into his age-33 season

^^^which is another reason i can't complain about these signings. because i'm bitter

javy baez is a fun, exciting player. he will, when he's not actively berating his own fans, make detroit a more interesting team to watch. will he lead them to a championship? probably not; they only give out one a year.

the pirates aren't just cheap and stupid, they don't even care about being vaguely competitive. the biggest contract they've ever given out was six years/$60m to jason kendall 21 years ago. there are no reasons to watch a pirates game.

the blue jays didn't make the playoffs this year but i don't think any of their fans would call the season a disappointment? the rangers just became much more interesting, even if they never win a pennant. i think there's a lot of value in that for fans

i just watched the Kevin Gausman press conference. reading between the lines it seems like the Giants would not give him more than four years and i'm ok with that even though the Giants are losing an ace. Gausman only has two pitches and it did catch up to him in the second half of last year. all these NL West teams did was lay off of his spiller and then he had to adjust. he was not the same guy as they started to figure him out but still would have liked to have him back. he found a better deal and as a fan i can live with that.

jackie bradley jr is back patrolling the quirky fastnesses of fenway!! my dad is so happy

javy baez is a fun, exciting player. he will, when he's not actively berating his own fans

tbf he only ever did this to mets fans, which is excusable

btw puig signed in korea

Justin Verlander’s two-year, $50 million agreement for '22-'23 with Houston has been given formal approval by Major League Baseball, even at a time when the owners have locked out the players in the on-going labor battle.
MLB and the union have worked through the final details.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 13, 2021

hmm

It might just be because there is no mlb news, but it feels
Like there are more players than usual signing with the foreign leagues.

You see, you're wrong there. There's lots of MLB news--did you not hear that Old Hoss Radbourn pitched 73 complete games in one year!

what is the union membership status of erstwhile major leaguers who go to japan?

Pretty sure ppl not under contract are allowed to seek employment overseas. Its how u get dudes playing winter ball

buck to the mets

good manager, let’s hope he’s learned something about using his closer

buck !

"Well, all of a sudden there's a problem with Alonso's swing..."

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z-9ls-ugums/hqdefault.jpg

he was one of the best baseball guys on seinfeld, as an actor. he knew how to not say or do anything and was effective for that

65 isn’t young, but it nevertheless feels like he should be older

I like it.

prince fielder is 37 years old. isn't that weird?

Yes--and Andruw Jones is only 44.

is this hot stove material? never know where to put ye olde general baseball news during the offseason

Camden Yards is being reconfigured to make it less of a launching pad, particularly for right-handed hitters. The Orioles are moving the left field fence back by nearly 30 feet feet (losing approximately 1,000 seats in the process) and also raising its height. According to MLB.com’s Zachary Silver, the distance to “true left field” will henceforth be 384 feet — in the words of GM Mike Elias, “very similar to PNC Park, in Pittsburgh.” According to Elias and assistant GM Sig Mejdal, the objective is increased neutrality. It’s no secret that pitchers haven’t been particularly enamored with taking the mound in Baltimore.

good

move the fences back, and move the rubber back, then we can #playball

i thought camden was always pretty neutral tho!

according to this, it had a park factor of 115 for 2010-2016:

This means that in the years 2010-2016, Camden Yards produced 108 runs for every 100 runs produced in the average MLB park, and 122 HRs for every 100 homers, for a mean Park Factor of 115.

This is an extreme hitter's park.

http://www.parkfactors.com/BAL

well shit

whoa, actual hot stove action

https://stlsportspage.com/2022/01/15/cardinals-add-surprise-to-international-signing-day-with-deal-for-outfielder-from-south-korea/

Won-Bin Cho, a power-hitting outfielder from South Korea, was one of 12 players signed by the Cardinals and immediately becomes one of the organization’s most-intriguing prospects.

Cho, 18, is a left-handed hitter who played center field for his high school team in South Korea. He has appeared on the international showcase circuit in front of scouts, including winning home run derby contests.

Cho announced last August that he was withdrawing his name from the Korea Baseball Organization draft so he could pursue signing with a major-league organization.

Cho, 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, was considered by some scouts as a five-tool prospect and had been projected as a top pick had he remained in the KBO draft. He is the first Asian amateur player signed by the Cardinals.

sure

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg: MLB executive council killed Tampa/Montreal plan. He says sister city plans will be in the future for all sports and says MLB wasn't prepared to go first.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) January 20, 2022

Automated strike zone coming to Triple-A in 2022 https://t.co/NvpohxWiqH

— NBC Sports EDGE Baseball (@NBCSEdgeBB) January 20, 2022

booooo (to Montreal getting nixed)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJ4C-vzWQA4QnTJ?format=jpg&name=small

i think it's the cardinal way that stands out to me. doing things the right way. having the best record of any non-NY/LA team with infinite money, through hard work and dedication - and maybe a couple tricks from Mr. George Kissell!!

it also stands out to me that the angels have the second best record in the AL west over that period of time, but yet never seem like serious playoff threats

also that the astros are still under .500 for that period. a lot of things standing out here

Angels surprised me the most

if you think about it, they're 8 games over .500 over a 10 year span and whereas some other teams might have had some great seasons and some bad ones to get them to that place -- i.e. the rangers -- i feel like the angels are just constantly mediocre. it sorta scans to me even tho i agree it's a bit weird to see them second over that time period. at some point there will be a reckoning over the longterm damage to baseball by having it's best player in 70 years basically never make the playoffs

It's not ideal, but what long-term damage would there be? A Google search turns up twelve HOF'ers who never played in the World Series, including Frank Thomas, Ryne Sandberg, Rod Carew, George Sisler, and Ernie Banks (as often pointed out, not even a playoff game). Trout's missed a lot of time the past few seasons; doesn't make him any less great of a player, but that hasn't helped L.A.'s postseason chances. It just seems like a weird statement to me, like the rest of the division owes Trout an apology or something.

Arte moreno owes trout an apology really

Idk if it's damaging the game now that we have acuna and tatis and vlad but it definitely sucks that trout and now ohtani don't get the national spotlight of the postseason

arte moreno sucks but tbf he's been more than willing to spend money -- he's just spent it poorly. certainly he doesn't owe trout or pujols or rendon any apologies

The AL Central owes everyone an apology.

god, i miss baseball. this is always the time of year when i reinstall out of the park baseball 201x and get really into it for 2 and a half days.

i missed this from last year:

Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly, whose mother is Mexican-American, wore a mariachi jacket to the White House on Friday.

He got the jacket earlier in the week after asking a musician from a mariachi band if he’d trade for a jersey.

(Via @redturn2, @mgarijc, @ashleynicokelly) pic.twitter.com/iuvB4BkWxa

— ESPN (@espn) July 3, 2021

i know signing expensive relievers as free agents is a bad idea, yet i highly desire a joe kelly return to stl

joe kelly gives me life

I made the mistake of undertaking a league build in ootp that has gotten so daunting, I’m scarred to open it again

i'd like to think that they wouldn't go ahead and charge people during a lockout, but if you have mlb.tv you might want to stop it from automatically renewing on march 1: https://www.mlb.com/account/subscriptions

i'd like to think that they wouldn't go ahead and charge people during a lockout

aha! ahahahahahahahahahahaha!

*breathes*

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

good call, i canceled that shit

thank you for this reminder, you have done the lord's work today mookie

this is probably the only way to nudge mlb into resolving this. i'd imagine not a lot of money comes in over spring training, but if they see a bunch of people unsubscribing it might spur a little action.

Jeter: not a true Marlin

". . . the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead."

they must be bringing back the sculpture

I’m new here @LinkedIn pic.twitter.com/6ICuCH7aBc

— Joey Gallo (@JoeyGallo24) February 28, 2022

i'm extremely used to players being younger than me but it's still weird to think that joey gallo graduated high school 6 years later than me

kwang-hyun kim is going back to KBO, signing with his old team (the Incheon-based SSG Landers, formerly the Wyverns) for 4 years, $12.3M.

that turns out to be the record contract guarantee in KBO, at 15.1 billion won

That’s not to say Kim “settled” for a return to Korea. His deal is worth 15.1 billion won, not coincidentally topping 15 billion won deals for Sung-bum Na and Dae-ho Lee that had previously been the largest guarantees in KBO history. Setting that record is presumably a point of pride for Kim, and he’d not have garnered a four-year guarantee had he remained in MLB. However, big league teams may have been willing to offer more than the roughly $3.075MM in average annual salary he’ll make on this deal had it been a typical offseason. A few other players have made the jump from MLB to foreign pro leagues this winter, but Kim would probably have garnered the most interest of that group had teams been able to keep in contact with his reps over the past few months.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/kwang-hyun-kim-signs-four-year-deal-with-kbos-ssg-landers.html

here we go

Yeah, the next few days are going to be bonkers

yup, this gonna be fun!

It’s 7 o’clock. Why haven’t dozens of free agents signed yet?!

Carlos Correa will be buying Amazon within a few days.

Please don't go to the Yanks, Freddie.

Keep hearing about Toronto as a possibility for him...would love that, if real.

It would be great and all - but makes like zero sense.

For him, you mean? Toronto would obviously have to pay out, which is why it won't happen, but theoretically, if they were willing, it would make sense for the Jays, no?

but why? they need a 3b (or failing that 2b) and a backend starter. Vlad's already at first, i don't see him going back to 3rd and neither of them are appropriate for DH.

fuck the handedness haters; let freddie play third

god i'm so glad the season will start soon. spring training is going to rule

some teams are literally starting tomorrow, no?!

i think official be there or die date is sunday, but players can report as early as tomorrow. so i'm already looking forward to pitchers and catchers tossing the ball and someone being in the best shape of their career. god i love this stuff

if wainwright and molina stay healthy, they will set the record for most battery-mate pitcher/catcher games, this year. i think they need around 22 or so

passing lolich and freehan, i think, at the top

honestly, i did think there was going to be an absolute rush of transactions, starting..pretty much anytime? weird

The Cardinals have agreed to a two-year contract with free-agent righty Drew VerHagen, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. VerHagen, who spent the past two seasons pitching in Japan, will be guaranteed $2.5MM in 2022 and $3MM in 2023.

uh, ok! let's do this

IT BEGINS

carlos rodon to the giants, 2 years/$44m

Welcome to San Francisco Carlos, two years is fine and can be very good

bold move for a guy with his injury history, but that's what money is for. glad rodon is getting paid

also kershaw re-signed with the dodgers for 1yr/$17m

Kinda glad Kershaw is back with los Dodgers

very much so

andrelton simmons to the cubs 1 yr/$4m

dodgers have supposedly made a big offer to freddie f

I guess that means the Cubs aren’t in on Correa?

oh, i think they very much still are

simmons is all glove no bat so they could conceivably have both

Kikuchi to the Jays at three years $36 mil. A year more than I would have expected, but in keeping with the extra year the jays typically have to throw in.

Source confirms: Yankees acquiring 3B Josh Donaldson, SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt for Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela. First: @JeffPassan.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 14, 2022

interesting

nelson cruz to the nationals

that Donaldson deal is a weird one.

Yeah it doesnt make a great deal of sense

MINN isnt even eating salary

did both teams just get worse?

yanks seriously upgrade their defense at short but idk who’s gonna catch and relying on 36yo josh donaldson to stay healthy for two years seems iffy. sounds like they’re going to bring back rizzo too, that’s a lot of older gentlemen

Kershaw accepted less money than the qualifying offer he turned down a few months ago. In a way the Dodgers did him a favour because if he's healthy and pitches well this year, he'll have a better chance of getting a multi-year deal with no strings attached (since he can't be given a QO again).

Cruz's deal is historic -- first DH to jump to the NL!

supposedly kershaw only considered the dodgers and rangers, and chose the former because he felt they had a better chance of winning another WS

that calculus doesn't seem likely to change during what remains of his career

really don't see why the cubs would try and sign correa right now when it seems like they're moving into another rebuild phase. a one-year contract for andrelton simmons makes a lot more sense.

Correa is young enough to rebuild around. And what will "rebuilding" mean with 12-team playoffs? You're probably never more than a year or two away from "contending".

degrom just said he plans to opt out after the season and test free agency with a preference to remain with the mets

which is an entirely reasonable thing for him to do! announcing it now feels awkward to me for some reason tho

mookie, would love to go to a Mets game with you and any other NYC ilxors who want to, preferably in June before they are out of it.

Tatis out for three months with a broken wrist.

I’m thinking Degrom will stay with NY in the end, unless the injury issues really pile up again.

Also citi is more fun when they’re out of it

This is what Pete Alonso’s car looked like after he was hit by a driver that ran a red light.

Pete escaped through the windshield after the car flipped three times and is doing alright 🙏

(via haleyralonso | IG) pic.twitter.com/L1kyzKP9Cf

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 14, 2022

that haul for Olson is something.

Eugenio Suarez has arrived to Reds camp. pic.twitter.com/pvECBkV7lW

— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) March 14, 2022

that haul for Olson is something.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, March 14, 2022 3:35 PM (fifty-four minutes ago)

it will be interesting. pache's star has def fallen after he was so bad in the majors & langliers seems more like a defense/power catcher who might not be a great AVG/OBP guy. to get 2 of a team's top 3 prospects is a lot in a deal and i'm sure the A's scouted the lower ranked guys well tho

The Reds saw Suarez's new hairdo and immediately traded him to Seattle

my understanding is that pache is defensively incredible, so if he can hit at all he will be Nice

but if he *is* nice, the a's will just trade him when he hits arbitration. fuck them

That pitcher they got, Cusick, looks pretty good too.

Reds cutting costs like they are going out of business (which hell they might be).

Reds might as well deal Votto now. Don't really like the Red Sox, but it would be fun to see what the heck Joey would do with that Green Monster for a season. Wade Boggs had a lot of fun going the opposite way and banging shots off that thing and I could see Votto doing something similar. I think Votto could also probably parlay that short porch and wind in Yankee stadium for a few cheapy homers too. F' that though.

Olson saga continues... just signed an 8-year, $168MM contract!

Wasn’t Freeman asking for less than that? I guess being the face of a franchise, winning an MVP, and helping the team win the World Series doesn’t count for much when you are 32 instead of 28.

It really doesn't! I say that as a disgusting Barves stan.

bummed they moved on but they’ve been fairly good at moving on with players right around their peaks (Heyward, McCann)

i think it was a pretty great series of moves for them

i think freeman is asking more, no? or maybe it was just a matter of years/age?

Breaking: Unvaccinated Mets and Yankees can’t play at home under current NYC ruleshttps://t.co/xCho2BmV2A

— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) March 15, 2022

Asked if he was vaccinated, Judge said, “I’m so focused on getting through the first games of spring training so I think we’ll cross that bridge whenever the time comes. But right now, so many things can change so I’m not really too worried about that right now.”

— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) March 15, 2022

Xander Bogaerts on if he’s vaccinated now “YES! So get that out there.”

— Jahmai Webster (@WebsterOnTV) March 15, 2022

Of course Judge isn’t vaxxed.

I’m guessing Nimmo isn’t either, but we will see I guess.

i think freeman is asking more, no? or maybe it was just a matter of years/age?

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, March 15, 2022 2:34 PM (one hour ago)

yeah he will def get more on a shorter contract... i could see him getting 4/120 or something like that

AJ Hinch says the Tigers are "actively looking for guys."

Judge rules minor league players are MLB employees throughout year and are owed damages, including $1,882,650 in California https://t.co/cIdEjIudnN

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 16, 2022

nice of Aaron Judge

“I’m so focused on getting through the first games of spring training so I think we’ll cross that bridge whenever the time comes. But right now, minor league players are MLB employees and are owed damages.”

"I just want to focus on my salad."

Chapman to the Jays for a clutch of secondary and fringe prospects.

presumably not aroldis

seiya suzuki to the cubs

schwarbs to the phillies

rizzo back to the yanks

there's your cubs and former cubs update

i wonder if they're making Rizzo get his shots.

Love too play toronto 15 times with half a team

they can't even play home games in NY if they're not vaccinated!

DOUBLE TRUE

gonna be extremely pissed if eric adams exempts them

Exempt the Mets and not the Yankees and be a legend

Third baseman Kris Bryant and the Colorado Rockies are in agreement on a seven-year, $182 million contract, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 16, 2022

why

Makes sense for nobody. (Unless Bryant is from Colorado?!)

*very joe buck voice* yes. oh god yes.

Also like no the deal doesnt make sense but to a certain extent bryant is playing (literally) with house money - cubs championship and got extremely paid in spite of having his service time dicked with

this player + team combo is making me very sad

Greinke back to Royals

Last season I guess? Finish where it started.

i'm glad bryant is getting paid -- by all accounts i've heard he's a good guy -- but yeah it's sad

In nearly 20 years covering baseball, not sure I’ve seen a better lineup than the one the Dodgers will use this season. In some order, it’s going to be Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, Will Smith, Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Chris Taylor and A.J. Pollock.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 17, 2022

fuuuck freeman to dodgers

he would have been a v good fit for the red sox

and sale's out indefinitely w a broken rib, the guy appears to be made of tissue paper

not sure what bloom's gameplan is here

Dang, I was rooting for Freddie to go to the Jays.

I have only been catching up on all this Hot Stove stuff. Agree with others on here about the Bryant contract, glad for him but he is way overpaid and the years make no sense for Colorado.

Joc Pederson to the Giants is a nothing move when you lose both Posey and Bryant. Farhan is not doing much this year but has money, I do trust him but hope he isn't being too cheap.

The Dodgers are just going to buy everything I guess. They have to be up to around $300MM payroll at this point. This can't be good for baseball and fuck them.

Are we having the paying players is bad for baseball debate

really bizarre thing to say after a labor strike centered primarily around the fact that essentially every team in baseball is slashing salary, which beyond the moral issue of where the money flowing, is obviously bad for the sport from an entertainment & competitiveness perspective

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Kris Bryant but I watched him the last half of last year. He airmailed at least three balls to first base, which was very bizarre as he was a third baseman in Chicago. He's just not worth that kind of money in my opinion and doesn't make Colorado any better than a forth place team.

xpost

or meant to say fourth place team in that loaded NL West division

"In nearly 20 years covering baseball, not sure I’ve seen a better lineup than the one the Dodgers will use this season."

Without any kind of comparison, that strikes me as wrong. Houston's lineup the year they won was better (putting aside the controversy). I think I could find a few more, too. Toronto's lineup in '93 was better.

Okay, the '93 Jays are outside his window...The Dodgers finished fourth in baseball last year in runs scored. They've added Freeman, and they've added the DH; they lost Seager, and they have a lot of good (not great, I'd say) hitters a year older. Who knows what you'll get with Bellinger. I'd bet against them to lead baseball in runs.

padres acquire luke voit

matt carpenter to the rangers on a minors deal

there’s your former cardinals update

Surprised the Yankees are dealing for minor leaguers

Voit didn’t have a position w rizzo DJLM and a surely immobile stanton and rehabbing at some point Judge

Also anyone who throws 100+ is major league ready for 20 innings a year

Also anyone who throws 100+ is major league ready for 20 innings a year

yeah i think it's more that the yankees were trying to dump voit, and everyone knew it, and that's all they could get

does anyone know what the deal with arbitration-eligible players is? seems like there are a lot of contracts to be agreed to/arbitrated and only three weeks to do it

kenle y jansen to the braves, 1yr/$16m

Jansen is “specifically NOT a genius” personified abd probably a dumb use of 16 mil

Ya, that number comes as kind of a surprise to me

Probably could have kept freeman for that

isn't Freeman going to get hosed with his salary due to playing in CA? that's one of those things i'm just baffled by if i was a potential FA - sure you're making $30 mil a year but $30 mil as a Dodger vs. $30 mil as a Marlin ends up different in the bank account after taxes.

Come on, when you make that much money the taxes don't matter.

somehow castellanos and schwarber ended up on the same team

Correa to the Twins 3Y/$105M, with opt-outs the first two years. Did not see any of that coming.

idgi for correa. i mean obviously he’s set for life and has some insurance if he gets hurt, but does kicking the can a year down the road really help?

i guess the dodgers will be in the market for a SS next year, and brandon crawford will be 36, but

it’s unexpected and fun, though, so i still like it

I guess competing with 4 other top SS drained his market too much - so the year-to-year makes some sense. His career has been a little up and down so this lets him pick his spot.
Wonder what this means for Story. Apparently he’s backed down from his “must play SS” stance.

The AL Central is back.

Does it have a NTC?

Worst case for Correa: 105M in his pocket, free agency at 30, still young enough to get a huge five year contract.
Best case: MVP-level year in 2022, bathes in money for the next ten years or so.

How exactly the Twins fit into this master plan is anybody's guess.

Guess the twins are figuring they have a decent shot at a wildcard spot. They’ve definitely made some interesting moves so far (aside from screwing themselves with Gary Sanchez behind the plate)

Story to Boston for 6 yrs/$140M. I think the only notable unsigned free agent left is…Conforto?

The opt out situation for Story is really bizarre.

blue jays sending randall grichuk and cash to the rockies for raimel tapia and a prospect

Leaving Alejandro Kirk as the handsomest blue Jay. The prospect, I’d never heard of, but had some great numbers last year. Looks very Altuve-esque

Don't know much about Tapia. His home/road splits are typical of Colorado.

Tapia's numbers would look pretty good if he happened to be a plus defender, but he isn't.

@matttadelphia
Nick Castellanos collects his first hit as a Phillie after the Blue Jays broadcast read pitching coach Pete Walker’s DUI apology statement on-air.

The Machine is back in St. Louis.

The Cardinals are finalizing a one-year deal with Albert Pujols, sources tell @katiejwoo.

The 42-year-old spent his first 11 seasons in St. Louis where he won three MVP awards and two World Series titles. pic.twitter.com/sGsKGEsref

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 28, 2022

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

FUCK

i will say, i was looking at his 2021 splits earlier today, after hearing a broadcaster talk about how much he could still kill lefties.

i totally get it. look at last year, 2021:

vs LH: 146 wRC+ (146 PAs)
vs RH: 36 wRC+ (150 PAs)

if 35-year-old new manager Ollie Marmol can manage to restrict prince albert to appearances against lefties only, great! but fuck, no, that's not happening.

the brewers will win the division, the cardinals will sell more merchandise. i don't doubt that there will be many moments of nostalgia with pujols/molina/wainwright this season, but they just made the team worse

can i just say that i love this deal though? god this is horrible

prince
albert
pujols

35-year-old oli marmol is managing pujols (42), molina (39), and wainwright (40)

the retirement tour is going to be excruciating for everyone who witnesses it.
also, "the road to 700", oooof

I knew you'd be all over this, KM...There were times I wanted certain Jays to come back and take a final curtain call (maybe McGriff and Delgado, or Alomar...can't remember exactly), even though I knew it made zero sense. So I understand "can i just say that i love this deal though? god this is horrible."

haha, for sure. god, it's already excruciating, just listening to the broadcast for today's game. but that's because it's a jim edmonds game (when he rotates in as the color commentator, he speaks for about 80-90% of the game). edmonds said both pujols AND molina are in the best shape of their lives, so that was cool.

also, after the first inning, pujols walked from the bullpen to the dugout, appearing in the cardinals uniform (#5) for the first time since 2011. apparently he was finishing up a physical before being allowed to join. he got a huge standing ovation from the crowd and the team, was pretty fucking emotional tbh

and i have to admit, i wasn't planning on going to opening day because i need to be not spending any money at all, but i am VERY tempted to see wainwright throwing to molina with pujols as the DH, the clydesdales, the organ song, the old hall of famers riding around, all of that. feels like i shouldn't miss that

You're right about that platoon split. In slash stats:

vs. RH: .180/.233/.266
vs. LH: .294/.336/.603

The bizarre thing is, he had almost equal PA against each: 150/146. His managers just totally ignored what was painfully obvious.

this guy is a psycho

'Revenge tour': New Reds outfielder Tommy Pham feels urgency to hit in 2022

"revenge tour"!

that's kind of awesome, lol

You're right about that platoon split. In slash stats:

vs. RH: .180/.233/.266
vs. LH: .294/.336/.603

The bizarre thing is, he had almost equal PA against each: 150/146. His managers just totally ignored what was painfully obvious.

so, since last night i've done some reading and learning, some stat digging, and i'm no longer feeling good about the platoon split.

he did murder lefties last year, but over the course of his career, even during the last handful of years, there hasn't been a significant split. over his career, he hit 147 wRC+ vs LH and 138 wRC+ vs RH.

also, i'd say if he had almost equal appearances against LH/RH pitchers last year, that's a strong sign that the manager was playing the platoon as much as possible, because otherwise he'd have much more appearances against RH

Hey--stop making me think deeper than superficial conclusions.

don't get me wrong, i am fully wiling to suspend disbelief and have some classic pujols/cardinals devil magic ONE MORE TIME!

there was a fangraphs article from last july about albert's lefty mashing. not sure how much his numbers tailed off from when this was written but the cards now being in a DH league and paying $2.5 million to a guy to crush lefties and basically never step onto the field otherwise would be a pretty great deal if he can hold up his end of the bargain. all the pomp and circumstance will be annoying tho no doubt

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/with-dodgers-albert-pujols-finds-a-role-by-bashing-lefties/

Shohei Ohtani, Ridiculous Back Door Slider (home plate view). 😳 pic.twitter.com/BOHSib5oCP

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 31, 2022

white sox have traded craig kimbrel to the dodgers for aj pollock

aw man! i've missed baseball, but not enough to miss his hangy arm thing

justin upton dfa'd...pretty ignominious, but inevitable end

Ke'Bryan Hayes, one of the most promising young talents in baseball, agreed to an eight-year, $70 million extension, a source told MLB.com reporter Jon Paul Morosi. The club has not confirmed the deal, which reportedly includes a team option for a ninth season.

huh why did the Brewers trade Josh Hader?

it makes sense for them in the long run, but i guess it also indicates that they don't see themselves going far this postseason (or in 2023, which would have been his last year for them), because I don't know what other pitcher you would want to have during the postseason

that's what i mean, it seems weird given that they're leading the division. feels like they're overthinking it.

I'm completely gobsmacked by this, can't see why the Brewers would do this with one of their most popular players, opinions on who got the best of this deal seem to be all over the map but just psychologically it seems like a bizarre thing for Milwaukee to do to the fans

oh yeah, i'd have to guess (and frogbs and other brew crew fans might disagree), but in terms of a fanbase and a local connection to a team, it's a 10000% loss to the brewers? the trade might make sense on some level given financial restraints and a pragmatic look at the team's chances to win over the rest of the 2020s, but any time you have to start going into any of that to explain why you traded away one of the best players you've ever seen in exchange for a lesser closer and some prospects you haven't (yet) heard of, there's no way it comes out well with the fans.

also...does this mean they're sellers at the deadline now?

That's a weird trade for the Padres especially with Soto still out there.

They got a really good haul for a player with limited time left and they got another closer in return who may be 90% as good as Hader if he breaks out of his slump. I'm more confused about why the Pads did it!

Fangraphs is pretty low on Ruiz and Gasser... Ruiz has elite speed and was raking in the minors so that seems odd to me.

Higher here though

LHP Robert Gasser will enter the Brewers’ MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects list at No. 8 and OF Esteury Ruiz will be No. 9, I’m told.

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) August 1, 2022

They got a really good haul for a player with limited time left and they got another closer in return who may be 90% as good as Hader if he breaks out of his slump. I'm more confused about why the Pads did it!

i think this is generally right, but it also makes the brewers worse this year. it's not the deal itself that doesn't make sense, it's the position of the teams doing it

If they can get Rogers back on track he's a top 10 closer imo

it would make sense, even, if a team dominating the division (like the yankees or dodgers or astros) got rid of a player like hader, because obviously they're stacked enough that they'd still easily win the division. but the brewers are only 3 up on the cardinals, and have been behind them in pythagorean record for most of the year. the cardinals are also likely to be stocking up for this year's division race. i still expect the brewers to be in it to the rest of the year, but it will be much better for the cardinals this year to not be facing Hader in high stakes innings at the end of the year, even if Rogers ends up being pretty good.

i don't know, maybe it all comes down to what you think of Taylor Rogers, and i've barely seen him pitch, so i have no idea. it seems to me like they're both having great years

yeah this is a weird trade and I don't think it's gonna go down well with the fans. Padres are almost certainly making the playoffs as well so maybe that's what convinced Milwaukee they could get a disproportionate haul.

fwiw I like Milwaukee's strategy of always taking value where you can get it. selling out for a title run makes sense in the NFL and the NBA but in MLB I'd think you'd rather field a Top 8 team for 5 years than a Top 3 team for 2. if that makes sense

also Taylor's fWAR is actually double Hader's this year - 1.4 vs. 0.6. Hader is so good when he's on it's easy to forget that sometimes he just cannot find the strike zone unless he pipes them down the middle. obviously he's the better reliever but from a pure mathematical standpoint this is like a half a win downgrade at worst, so if the Brewers weren't gonna re-sign him (and why would they, given the boatload of money he's gonna make) I think this works out for them

i guess the nightmare scenario (for brewer fans) is that the brewers miss the playoffs by a game or two, and hader pitches extremely well for the padres in the playoffs and gets carried off the field on the padres' shoulders

Hader did blow a 3 run lead in the WC game to the eventual WS winner (Washington) so we kinda already lived the nightmare scenario

Hader had a 12 era in July btw

oh god, i had forgotten about that!

xp

he had 2 very bad games in July, including one I saw where he gave up 6 to the Giants. he's been alright since then. he also didn't give up any earned runs through June 5, which is pretty impressive!

anyway, weird deal!

well he did give up 6 runs in a single appearance vs. the Giants which is a near-impossible feat for a closer

it’s an odd trade, but devin williams can take over hader’s role nicely and hasn’t even hit arbitration yet

and hader’s probably at peak trade value, so

idk anything about the guys they got back, but it seems like maybe a canny move for a mid-market club that wants to compete every year rather than tank-cycle

milwaukee's the smallest market in MLB isn't it?

this does feel like a very rays-y trade

Rays would've traded him 2 years ago

yeah i understand the calculation on this one... they have a guy behind hader who might actually be better than him, and if rogers just randomly pitches better than he has at points this year (not uncommon w/ relievers) their pen might not take that much of a hit. it's fair to say that most competing teams try and stack 3-4 lights out relievers for the playoffs compared to the brewers trading from their arsenal but chances are it more or less all comes out in the wash. also the brewers have a strong trio of frontline starters for the playoffs and have a guy like aaron ashby who has moved between the pen and the rotation during the season but will be used as a high leverage reliever in the playoffs. i can see why they looked at their pitching and thought they'd be ok

i don't think they're set to straight-up lose anyone the way they did last year with trevor story and jon gray, but i wonder if the rockies are going to do anything besides extend daniel bard (which is nice tbh! but also not something any other team would have done in their position)

Yanks got Montas and Trivino

And Manchini to the Astros!

brett phillips dfa’d ;_;

two days after his jersey night

mancini is gonna be so good for the astros smh

Our Beloved Willians was also dfa’d (again) over the weekend

wow, Austin Riley gets 10-yr extension

Riley and the Braves agreed to a 10-year, $212 million extension on Monday. The deal includes a $20 million option for 2033, when the third baseman will be 36 years old.

This deal buys out three arbitration years for Riley, who will make $15 million in 2023, $21 million in 2024 and $22 million per season over the remainder of the deal.

probably could've ultimately gotten more, but hey locking in $200m before something goes wrong is Nice

Mets are effectively picking up Jacob Degrom right at the trade deadline

soto and josh bell to the padres. no word on the return, yet

wow did not think it would actually happen

Can’t imagine the return will be worth it though

So far:

Padres get Soto and Bell

Nats get Eric Hosmer, Mackenzie Gore, C.J. Abrams, Robert Hassell III, Jarlin Susana, and James Wood.

Hosmer has a 10 team no-trade clause that includes the Nats though.

not a bad haul!

Soto and Tatis Jr. on the same team? That's amazing. Has there ever been two 23-year-olds of that caliber on the same team?

Soto, Tatis, Machado, Bell...awesome.

hosmer has a no-trade clause in his contract and washington is on the list. i'm sure it'll just lead to him getting paid more but it would be hilarious if he ruined the whole deal by refusing.

oh i see michael mentioned that

Saw that too...Trying to think of Hosmer showing up for work the next day if he killed the deal.

Kind of feels akin to when the Mets traded Tom Seaver in the late ‘70s. That one still hurts.

Does seem like Hosmer is resisting and so the Padres will probably have to give up someone else.

looks like hosmer vetoed the trade hahaha

they will prob wind up adding a third team to take him, i presume?

Apparently Hosmer has now been traded to Boston, so while he escaped Washington he isn’t able to stay in SD.

Boston way better place to land than Wash, even if it is humiliating how you got there.

Looks like Luke Voit is going to Washington instead of Hosmer now. Rough twist of fate for him.

a) Everybody wants Eric Hosmer.
b) Nobody wants Eric Hosmer.

i don’t understand these red sox moves

No one can say the padres aren’t all the way in, especially with the dodgers in their way.

sox need a 1b who can hit

the other stuff is bewildering

syndergaard to philly for lol mickey moniak

harrison bader goes to the yankees for jordan montgomery

toronto has acquired the unvaccinated whit merrifield

and it appears that the rockies made zero trades between the ASG and deadline

angels are approaching rockies territory at this point in that i have no idea what they're doing and it's getting sad in a different kind of way than it has been

when a 38yo middle reliever like jesse chavez is available, you have to find a way

i just learned that chavez is the most traded player, ever. 9 trades in 15 seasons!

pretty annoyed the white sox basically didn’t do anything, they really need a 2b who can hit (ie not josh harrison or leury garcia)

Manny Machado on Hosmer: "We got a great player (Soto) but we lost the best teammate I ever had."

it looks like one of the return players for Hader is being DFA'd? Seems likely he won't clear waivers:

Although Lamet technically has options remaining, Hogg points out that he recently surpassed five years of MLB service time. Players beyond that threshold cannot be optioned without their consent, meaning Lamet had to be DFA’d to be removed from the roster. That also means that, should Lamet clear waivers, he would have the right to refuse an outright assignment and elect free agency without forfeiting his salary, as all players beyond five years of MLB service can.

Frankly, it would be very surprising if Lamet cleared waivers, given his track record and modest salary. He was one of the best pitchers in baseball during the shortened 2020 season, logging a 2.09 ERA over 12 starts with a 34.8% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has dealt with injury woes in subsequent seasons, being relegated to bullpen duty and occasionally getting optioned to the minors. Still, he’s making a modest $4.775MM salary this year and can be retained for another season via arbitration. Due to his injuries, underperformance and time spent in the minors, he likely wouldn’t earn a huge raise for 2023.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/08/brewers-designate-dinelson-lamet-pedro-severino-for-assignment.html

xp obviously machado was never in a clubhouse with drake laroche

JBJ DFA

what else do i have to say

Man that's sad. I'm not sure i've ever seen anybody with his arm.

Have i related this story before? With my parents and my kids at Fenway, watching an interleague game against Arizona. Top of the first. David Price on the mound. Leadoff hitter, can't remember who, absolutely rockets the first pitch he sees to deep center. JBJ goes back for it, kind of stumbles, and can't catch up to it. Over his head. The crowd groans. Standup triple. Jackie's kicking the grass back there. Second hitter comes to the plate and laces the first pitch HE sees to shallow center field, a laser this time, dipping down, the leadoff hitter trotting slowly home along the third base line. And somehow, impossibly, Jackie makes the catch off his shoelaces. He comes up firing. The leadoff hitter is like YIKES - he scrambles back but he's too late. The throw from Jackie is a strike, no hops, tagged out. Double play. Bases clear, two outs.

Actually I must be remembering that wrong - no need to tag him out because he'd left the base too early. In any case he did not beat the throw, which appeared to come from a whirling assembly of body parts in shallow center named "Jackie Bradley Jr". The combined motion of catching the ball and throwing that strike left Jackie sprawled on the ground but when he saw the out called he bounced right up, and headed back to his spot.

The other thing I remember about him in the field, which you never got to see on the telecasts, is how if he caught the third out of the inning, he and Mookie would play a kind of game of football when they were running back into the dugout. Mookie, playing right, would run a route towards the dugout, JBJ would launch the baseball to him and Mookie would glove it on the run like a wide receiver tucking away an outlet pass. Just pure joy in that outfield.

the cubs announced they're releasing jason heyward at the end of the season. he's injured right now but they're keeping him around for "veteran presence" for the rest of the season. kind of a bummer he never really panned out as a star, he seems like a cool guy.

There were these shaky cell phone videos of him w the cubs after he rebuilt his swing for the hundredth time where he’s taking BP and crushing balls down by his ankles and i remember feeling so happy for him that he had finally figured it out.

Fun player when he was on

he might have earned his cubs salary by pumping the team back up during the rain delay of world series game 7

i was convinced dude was going to be a hall of famer!

u mad

he put up 6.4 bWAR as a 20yo!

always interesting to me to look at the JAWS of ~good~ players -- heyward obviously isn't a hall-of-famer, but he's just under 40 bWAR through his age-32 season (today's his 33rd birthday)

JAWS has him as the 55th-best right-fielder of all-time. and that's really really good!

he was never a slam dunk case, but when he signed with the cubs he was only 26 and he had already racked up 25 fWAR. i was disappointed at the time that he didn't sign with the cardinals. i thought that he was young enough that a long, 8 year contract would still be worth it for his defense alone. i thought his floor was as a 3 WAR kind of player, with superb defense more than making up for what would probably be mediocre to slightly above average offense production. but that turned out to be more like his ceiling, and it got worse from there.

https://i.imgur.com/8pFoEbP.png

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/checking-in-on-the-aging-curve/

xp and yes, jason heyward is an exceptional baseball player, especially in comparison to normal people, but also in comparison to almost all of his peers

braves sign 21-year-old michael harris II, who has played one season of double-A ball and 71 MLB games, to an 8-year, $72 million extension

Makes me wonder if Swanson is a goner after this year.