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

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