hot stove 2019-20

damn

kris bryant isn't a UFA til 2022

― 10,000 mani-gecs (voodoo chili)

lindor isn't a free agent until 2022 either

― mookieproof,

sorry, i always find fangraphs descriptions of contracts to be confusing. on lindor's page it says "Free Agent: 2021", which I assumed meant he'd be a free agent at the end of 2020. But I guess it means he'll be a FA after that season.

anyway, my silly explanation above still applies - these are young stars that are nearing the end of their contracts. the further away they are from the end of the contract, the more they're worth as trade chips.

The Yankees committed more money to Gerrit Cole ($324M) than the Pirates have to free agents in the last 25 years ($299.5M).

tbf this is probably not true if both figures are denominated 2019 dollars

true, but still

biggest contract in pirates history went to jason kendall in 2000: six years, $60m

i think their highest annual salary was two years of a.j. burnett at $16.5m, acquired in a trade from the yankees

amazing

jose peraza to the red sox

ew

Austin Romine is now a teammate of good friend Miguel Cabrera.

ffs i just want lindor to be an indian for the next ten years is that too much to ask? i don’t want to relive manny ramirez all over again.

I’m enjoying this off-season much more than last years.

who are the best free agents left? ozuna? castellanos?

plus donaldson and ryu (and maybe bumgarner and keuchel)

TT are you a Boras or Cole cousin? secret Stankee fan?

Are you now or have you ever been a fan of the new york stankees

TT welcome to kindergarten

tsk Hade u lost cause

TT and i have sat in the old YS bleachers! and heard a fan curse a 10-yo Tigers fan.

a creature, that is

who are the best free agents left? ozuna? castellanos?

― na (NA), Friday, December 13, 2019 8:22 AM (four hours ago)

plus donaldson and ryu (and maybe bumgarner and keuchel)

― mookieproof, Friday, December 13, 2019 8:28 AM (three hours ago)

Grandal belongs above many of the players listed.

On November 21, 2019, Grandal signed a four-year, $73 million contract with the Chicago White Sox.

i think y'all are forgetting Blue Jays legend Eric Sogard is still available.

Adam Jones to Japan

I... had no idea! And I thought I've been paying attention...

mets and cespedes reach an agreement to 'significantly' cut his 2020 salary (in lieu of the mets trying to void his contract entirely)

nice

looks like he can make most that money back through incentives. really curious what he did that could have almost voided his contract like that.

I recall some rumors about his injury which I now suppose must be true, whatever they were

The Milwaukee Brewers have filled the glaring Anderson-sized hole in their rotation with a 1-year deal with Brett Anderson, who is somehow only 31 years old. Brett Anderson has suffered over 114 injuries during his major league career so far

Lol

Anthony Rendon says that he couldn't sign with the Dodgers because the "Hollywood lifestyle" didn't appeal to him.

So that's why he signed with the ... LA Angels??

the Disney lifestyle

Yeah no, Anaheim/Santa Ana is like a good 2+ hours from downtown LA/Hollywood by auto. It's very well a different city, economy, demographics, politics (well... until recently, but it's still pretty right-wing for California).

Yes, I know it's a huge city but it's not like he has to live down the street from the stadium and adopt the lifestyle of the fans. It seemed like a silly thing to say when he'll still be living and playing in LA.

BREAKING: The Texas Rangers are in the final stages of completing a trade to acquire two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber from the Cleveland Indians, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 15, 2019

Best Indians pitcher I’ve ever seen. I like the move, though. It was time to move on. I just really wish they had won it all back in 2016.

two-time cy winner for a reliever and a bad outfielder. pathetic

two-time cy winner on the downside of his career!

Coming off an injury and being paid slightly more than a qualifying offer. A steal in my books.

steamer projection has him at 3.4 fWAR this season; clase and deshields combine for 1.1. this is a team that won 93 games last year -- this deal makes absolutely no sense beyond dumping salary.

you could argue that the cleveland rotation is pretty good even without him, and maybe they'll use the $17m to extend lindor or sign someone at a position of greater need, but i'll believe that when i see it.

also hard to believe they couldn't have gotten a better deal. kluber's 2020 projection is slightly better than zack wheeler's, ffs -- were there really no teams willing to give up more than a reliever and fifth outfielder for that?

either they're super high on Deshields and/or it never occurred to other teams to just offer them random things.

I could see Kluber just continuing to decline but his stuff is so good and his track record was basically Scherzer-like coming into last season, so I imagine there might be some teams who would have offered more. But maybe they know something we don’t.

bumgarner to arizona, apparently

!

That's kind of out of the blue

saw somewhere Kluber deal is not complete

apparently Bumgarner just really wanted to be in Arizona.
huh.

horses

A source close to Bumgarner says the Diamondbacks were his No. 1 choice, provided they could pay him at an appropriate level. As The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly recently noted, Bumgarner has horses in the Phoenix area and loves it there. For Bumgarner, an individualist who cares little about public perception, that and the solid five-year offer were enough.

an individualist

an individual-plus-several-horses-ist.

what a weird ass trade. a relief prospect (albeit a 102 mph-throwing one) and an all-defense fringe player.

almost any team could match or top that offer for one year of kluber, and there are a ton of teams that you'd think would be willing to do it.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nobody-really-wanted-corey-kluber