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.

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.