Orioles star Adam Jones continued to express his feelings on an important offseason for the organization, as Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports. The highly-respected veteran said that he thinks re-signing Chris Davis is “probably the highest priority” for the organization this winter. Skipper Buck Showalter addressed the subject in a less direct manner. “We’d like to keep everybody, obviously,” he said. “I think everybody shares that. Let’s see where it goes. We all have our own personal feelings about it. You can probably guess what mine are. Some things you reach for because, let’s be frank, it makes your job easier. But you also know what your job description is.”
Here’s more from the AL East:
- The Orioles “briefly” pursued extension talks with Davis and his representatives at the Boras Corporation, per Connolly. But despite stated interest from both sides in an ongoing relationship, those discussions never gained much traction.
- Looking even further back into “what-if” transactional history, the Red Sox had a legitimate chance a few years ago to land Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins, according to ESPNBoston.com’s Gordon Edes. But Miami was insistent that any deal would have to include shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and that proved a sticking point that prevented further progress.
- The Red Sox have obviously received exactly what they hoped for when they placed a high value on Bogaerts. As he turns 23 today, the shortstop is putting the finishing touches on an outstanding season in which he’s been worth about 4.5 to 5 wins above replacement. The same holds true, of course, of the versatile Mookie Betts. (He’ll reach 23 years of age within the week.) Those performances raise the possibility of extension talks, says Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, who analyzes the history of similarly-situated young players as well as that of new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.
Lock up Betts 1st and foremost, then work on Rodriquez. I’d be more inclined to speak with Jair Bogaerts and put out another feeler.. Xander spoke a couple of times during the season about wanting to sign LT. Jair has stated publicly before he has wanted to represent his brother (Jair is a MiLB agent) Maybe Jair can help facilitate something between Boston and Xander, get rid of mr greed in the process there.
A Betts extension should be the RS’s #1 priorty. I was thinking something along Yelich’s 7/50mil extension with a club option for the 8th year. Although, Betts may be a bit more expensive given he’s the better player with more power. But I would like to buy out 3 years of his FA (has 5 years remaining)
Rodriguez could come dirt cheap (in relative to MLB contracts today) given we still control him for 6 years including 3 years at the league min. Chris Archer’s 6/25.5 mil extension with 2 club options could be a comparison, as could Ventura’s 5/23mil extensionw with 2 club options.
Bogaerts is where things get tricky.
I don’t think we’ll see Jair represent his brother for a nice while yet. He needs more experience, and I’m not too sure if the two would want to be involved with regards to Xander’s contract. They seem to have a very strong relationship, and I don’t think they would want to potentially lose that. Chances are, we see Boras get Xander his first big contract, with Jair taking out after that first one runs out (in which case, the margin for error isn’t as catastrophic, and Jair has more experience). And yeah, they definitely got to work on an extension for Betts before even considering Bogaerts because Betts has proven he is the better player, but Bogaerts is gonna get a more expensive extension because of Boras.
If the opportunity to revisit Giancarlo is possible, I would be inclined to listen. Xander is a Jeter like person who, I believe, would entertain thoughts of playing in NY. Unless Xander acts independent of Boras and signs a Sox extension I would love to see Stanton in Boston for the rest of his career. The Sox would have to include all top prospects except Betts.
DD knows what it would do to the farm?–Would the tigers part with M. Cabrera if a deal featuring Xander and others was proposed? I know the Tigers have Iggy at SS and he may be the best fielding SS available. Just a thought…
Miguel Caberea, at his age with his current contract, has zero value, possibly negative value. His 10/250mil extension starts next year (when he is 33 and will run into his aged 42 season). The Tigers will be lucky to dump his salary and get a few mid level prospects for him, nevermind a young star like Bogaerts making the league min. Xander is one of the most valuable assets int he game. Cabrera has very little if any value.
This (Boston) isn’t one of the majority of teams in the league that only has 2.. Maybe 3 stretching it decent prospects with a really legit MLB chance to help the parent club in a substantial way. Boston has 8-10 and no way to they include all but Betts, from your “all but Betts” to acquire another DH in Cabrerra who is playing 1b and is the worst fielding 1b in the game, other than the guy Detroit moved in Fielder.
So many people here think Boston should just throw away Bogaerts, Swihart, Moncada, Guerra, Margot, Kopech, Espinoza.. List goes on and on.. For sluggers who are the wrong side of 30, owed huge sums of dollars only because the Sox have a loaded farm system.
I’ve got to ask these people.. Would you if it was your favorite team and when finally giving 4 and only 4 of the kids a chance to play regularly that the team which had been awful all season with overpaid and old veterans had turned it around? Even having the best record in the league in September? I believe 8G over .500 since mid August also if not mistaken, but may be not exact on the 2nd.
The team could possibly use a power bat, granted, but not giving up 2-3 of the REALLY good young kids for overpaid people like Cabrerra and Votto like have seen here the last few days and definitely not paying strikeout king Davis 100-125m only to see him flop for good after 2-3 seasons, making the JD Drew deal look great from back in ’07.
Not trying to attack you here madmc. I’d just like for people to look at it from their own team’s side, or yours from a Rangers standpoint if remember correctly a few years back when they had a decent system with several top kids.
Betts is not a prospect. Cabrera is in his mid 30’s and owed a ton. Stanton is also owed a ton. The Red Sox top three is better then pretty much any other teams top three prospects. You under value both the amount of money on the table and the prospects.
First of all, what does a Bogaerts-Stanton trade have to do with NY?
Second of all, Bogaerts’ value at SS is huge if the power develops like it can. This means that it isn’t a reach to expect him to put up the same WAR amounts (or more) than Stanton as he gets older, which makes him much more valuable because of Stanton’s contract. This means that trading significant prospects with Bogaerts would be insane, especially when the Red Sox already have an outfield that they can head into 2016 with (while having no other capable starting SS).
Third of all, as many others have mentioned, the Cabrera contract is terrible and with the Red Sox’ limited budget, it doesn’t make much sense to use up most of it when the pitching needs to be significantly improved.
I wouldnt trade Bogaerts or Betts for anything. Lock these two up now and build your franchise around two players that have the ability to be special for a long time.
The Orioles’ other priority should be locking up Machado long term. But, sadly, I don’t see that happening.
The Red Sox may be too prospect protective.. Obviously the Giancarlo and Hamels come to mind. I would have thought Hamels for a betts or swihart headlined package would be very solid for Boston
Thats the first time I’ve heard they could have gotten Giancarlo and that was years ago. The Rangers gave up three good players but non were close too Betts or Swihart. Also the Red Sox only started to play well in september so Hamels would have not been a big game changer. The Red Sox were not going to go all in on a lost season. That is backwards.