Hot Stove 2023-2024

one more time around again. Yamamoto meeting with the Jays before signing with the dodgers.

I did read--accurate or not, who knows?--that the Jays' offer for Ohtani was in the 650-675M range; if true, a sincere attempt to sign him (and not just the dog-and-pony show I suspected). Honestly, I can live with them missing out.

i wasn't going to take things serious with the jays and Ohtani, assuming he was going to LA all the way... and then these tweets (or Xs or whatever) about him being close to signing - and MLTR and sportnet amplifying the rumours. i stupidly got caught up and got my hopes up.

now that i know that his inflation-adjusted yearly value counts against the luxury tax, i don't really have too many complaints

I had also heard that there was rodgers-related endorsement stuff tied to the TOR offer so that’s also a good faith effort xp

rodgers

this will be the name of the inevitable Rogers/Dodgers merger

Lol

continuing that it speaks to the malpractice levels of failure that the ownership of the angels, both sox, and a's can't get their shit together, and the gints may be approaching that level of what are we doing here lads

Yes!

My milky ass take is that dipoto is actually an idiot

Stanton the owner is so much worse.

Right-hander Seth Lugo and the Kansas City Royals are in agreement on a three-year, $45 million contract, a source told ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 12, 2023

"excepting the fact of the dodgers/other big market teams dominating the free agent market, which is a bit of a separate issue"

But it doesn't have to be this way, look at what the Padres and Rangers have done in the past few years. No time for billionaire owners running profitable sporting teams to cry poor!

https://infogram.com/player-costrevenue-1hdw2jmpgd8d2l0
A noisy but great graph showing who is spending more relative to their revenue (hint, it's the expected targets, the typically successful teams) and who is not (also the expected targets: mariners, pirates, indians, marlins etc.)

Also why are people so upset that I think he’s a dickhead for his choice, are you new to sports fandom or what?

Also since you asked and I really don’t think this deserves a pass: you literally expressed comfort for a career ending injury for this man like lol, wtf is wrong with you? Go ahead and call him a dickhead (still would be a very weird thing to do), but the thing about posting stupid stuff online is people are probably going to respond.

what would be amazing is if the deferred money were put in some kind of hedged escrow account that earned like 5% CAGR and the dodgers started paying ohtani the inflation-riddled balance in 2033 but kept the net investment

i mean nothing stopping them doing that if they wanted i guess

SIGNED: #Giants have signed OF Jung Hoo Lee to a six-year, $113M contract, with an opt-out clause after his fourth season.

— MLB Transaction Tracker (@MLBMovesTracker) December 12, 2023

Lee has a couple things in common with Shohei Ohtani: both were born in Japan (Lee's dad played for the Dragons) and they both posted to MLB after season-ending ankle injuries.

lol that is the second mention of the dodgy Ohtani ankle from you today. Do you keep a log of these things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMhOX7vJhY

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/12/12/d-backs-introduce-lefty-eduardo-rodriguez-unfazed-by-nl-west-rival-dodgers-adding-ohtani/71897601007/

Dbacks owner Ken Kendricks got that post-WS confidence!
referring to Ohtani:
“I think it's good for us that we get to compete against him,” Kendrick said. "Last time I looked, he's one of nine. Last I also looked, he's the designated hitter. He's a great player. Is he the second coming? I would suggest not."
"“They're playing by the rules,” Kendrick said. “They got a great player, who is going to be an addition that makes them more competitive. But the economics are not so tilted in a way that puts them at an incredible advantage over the rest of us.”

I do see the giants/dbacks/pad's keeping things competitive this year, especially with deals still to be made. Looks like a great pick up for SF, had a fantastic ops in the KBO

🫡 man knows ball (though I prefer to imagine you with a big notebook of player injuries alphabetically. ANKLES:
POSEY, Buster (2011)

OBLIQUES

and so on.)

Grienke looking to pitch this season, he's at 2979 strikeouts. Could work for the dodgers as a lance lynn 2.0. Bloke can eat innings, pitched more of them than any Dodger did last year

Rowdy Tellez to Pirates. @ByRobertMurray 1st

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 13, 2023

https://x.com/extrabaggs/status/1734726437876474082?s=20

Ohtani camp presented Giants the exact deal that Ohtani ended up finalizing with LA. "We were agreeable to it," Zaidi said. Then Giants were told it was in Ohtani's hands. Obviously, Shohei picked Dodgers.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) December 13, 2023

Superstar in Korea:

Some of Jung-Hoo Lee's KBO accomplishments (7 seasons)

.340/.407/.491 line
9.7% BB rate
7.7% K rate
.151 ISO
2017 ROY
2022 MVP
5x KBO Gold Glove Award winner#SFGiants

— Jeff Young (@BaseballJeff1) December 12, 2023

silver lining: Looks like the giants are trying to open their purse. Saw a tweet that they're in on belli too

The Dodgers are discussing a trade in which they would get RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Manuel Margot from the Rays for RHP Ryan Pepiot and OF Jonny Deluca, sources tell @TheAthletic. Deal not complete. Changes possible. Financial exchange likely. On it: @Bnicklaus7, @AzoulayHaron

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 13, 2023

i honestly wouldn't want to give up anything of value for Glasnow. he's obviously quite good (a little inconsistent) - but he's always hurt. the Dodgers would be lucky to get 1/2 season out of the guy imho

He’s been in the big leagues 8 years and pitched just over 500 innings. That’s crazy. I know he had TJS & there was the short covid season but that’s not great. Filthy stuff when he’s healthy but I agree with what you said. And Pepiot has potentially plenty of upside & tons of team control.

morel is an interesting player, feels like he's either hitting 5 homers in a week or in a 5/49 slump

I love him. That k rate is his biggest issue but he’s exactly as you say. Supposedly extremely popular in Chicago as well (The Athletic):

Christopher Morel has been one of their most exciting players to watch, so much so that you can't even go get a Chicago dog behind home plate in between innings if he's due up.

for better or worse, morel feels like javy baez pt. 2 (without the flashy defense)

(i do not have high hopes for him)

I feel like the key determinant of Baez at the plate is how much shit outside the zone he swings at. Have you seen the shit Baez was swinging at this year? Morel is in the 43rd percentile for chase rate, Baez is in the 1st. The highest Baez has ever got in his career is 6th. Morel also hits hard and has pretty decent barrelling numbers; Baez looks like a noodle bat.

Morel:
https://i.postimg.cc/MHGkQKHm/IMG-2970.jpg

Baez:
https://i.postimg.cc/SR1B7FzF/IMG-2971.jpg

Morel walks at a better rate than Javy, but he doesn't have Javy's considerable base running and defensive value. I'm a little wary of his long-term prospects. But he's still young and I still would definitely not give him up for Glasnow. Aka Mr. Glassnow.

Rowdy Tellez to Pirates. @ByRobertMurray 1st
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 13, 2023

Going to see him in April I guess!
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, December 12, 2023 6:51 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

are they gonna use him as a hitter or pitcher?

i meant more young baez than current baez. also more of an impression than a firm 1:1 comparison.

Fair enough, though Baez at the same age and career stage as Morel (first full season) didn’t profile much different as a hitter. Elite glove obviously.

And I do see now that Morel is currently in the DR playing winter ball, no doubt to work on his glove.

Unusual clause in Ohtani contract

Contract also states, “If specific change in Dodger personnel, player may opt out of contract at end of season the change occurs.” Not known at present who this refers to.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 13, 2023

Mike Trout

95% chance that’s about this interpreter, maybe like 5% Mookie Betts?

Saw a tweet that they're in on belli too

God I hope not. He’s got boondoggle written all over him.

He had an incredibly high ceiling. Big power, and even when he was below average in his offence for the dodgers he still put up positive war with his elite defence. He proved he still had his mojo with the cubs imo, think he’d be a great pick up for any team. I’d back the dodgers going after him again

His k rate dropped by about 12% in 2023. I’m really curious if he’s figured something out, or if that’s just some amazing fluke

over 600+ plate appearances? kinda stretches the definition of "fluke". It reverted back to his end of 2020 pre-shoulder injury form. I don't know if he gets any better than 2023, but barring serious injuries, I don't see him getting significantly worse, besides the normal drop of age. 27 though? I think any team is going to get a great outfielder for the next five years minimum

What I'm interested in is his drop in hr's. I didn't watch much belli last year so don't have the eye test. Looking at the stats, his average and k% were both at 2019 mvp cody form. Also wtf a 300+ average for a 2023 player known historically as a power hitter???? It's just the slug that dropped, and the walks along with it (I see those as connected). He hit more singles this season than any other, probably connected to the new shift rule? The shift worked against him more than any other dodger player while he was there.

But really what happened to the power? Was the 2019 juiced ball really responsible for Cody's monstrous 2019 .629 slug? His 2023 .525 slug is still elite, just weird to see that as the only thing that dropped for a 27yo player

whoever gets belli is going to be a better team in 2024 because of him