10:56pm: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman hears differently from Rosenthal, tweeting that the Braves’ early interest in O’Day has dwindled as his price has risen.
10:26pm: There’s been no shortage of teams connected to Darren O’Day this winter, and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that the Dodgers are in “big time” pursuit of the former Orioles setup ace, noting that two sources have said as much to him in the past week. A more surprising team now being linked to O’Day, though, is the Braves, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Atlanta is in the midst of a rebuilding phase but is nonetheless eyeing O’Day as well as left-hander Matt Thornton, Rosenthal writes, adding that execs from other clubs feel that the Braves could actually submit the largest offer for O’Day’s services.
O’Day is said to be seeking a four-year pact in the range of $28-36MM total and reportedly left last week’s GM Meetings with multiple offers in hand. Presumably, none of the offers extended to him in Boca Raton were in that range, but the Dodgers have been connected to O’Day from the onset of the offseason and were said by Crasnick last week to have “significant” interest, which seemingly hasn’t waned as widespread interest potentially works in O’Day’s favor.
While Atlanta makes a curious fit, it should be noted that despite the fact that 2014-15 was an offseason spent largely rebuilding, the team did add veteran Nick Markakis on a four-year deal. Adding O’Day would be a similar win-now move amidst a slew of other re-tooling maneuvers, though any multi-year deal agreed to would extend into the 2017-18 window in which Atlanta aims to contend with a rebuilt staff of impressive young pitchers.
Thornton’s asking price isn’t known at this time, but the 39-year-old vet did just conclude a 2015 campaign that saw him work to a pristine 2.18 ERA in 41 1/3 innings. While Thornton’s strikeout numbers (5.0 K/9) are down considerably from his peak years with the White Sox, he held left-handed opponents to a miserable .198/.205/.279 batting line and was also reasonably effective, albeit not dominant against right-handers as well (.229/.333/.357).
Los Angeles and Atlanta are just two of many teams that have reportedly shown interest in O’Day. He’s also been linked to the Tigers, Mets, Cubs, Nationals, Red Sox and Royals. Of course, Boston and Detroit have already acquired help for the back of their bullpens and may not wish to spend to this extent to further bolster their relief contingents.
While O’Day would be nice, I really don’t want to see us spend the money when we have so much other pitching we can use for a spot that won’t matter for another 2 years.
Braves? Why?
Yeah well the Braves were shopping Markakis, so I guess they feel if they add at least one All-Star caliber player each off-season they can eventually trade them for prospects. Sneaky sneaky.
Signing good players and then trading them is exactly what the Cubs did during the rebuild. It’s a great system.
Who exactly are these great players you talk about????
It’s also what the Marlins did, the difference is that the Cubs did it on short term deals (great strategy) and the Marlins did it on long term deals (not) Markakis and o’day both will have long, not great contracts. Besides, if your trying to spend $30MM On an offseason trade chip there’s better ways than through the set up man. Not saying you’re wrong, but that if your right that should worry braves fans.
I’m going for the dodgers. They have money (not that they are going for his asking price) and other teams seem not as down a reliever
I’d rather Boston just give Tazawa a 3y extension at 15m or so and sign Badenhop for 1-2m than give O’Day 25m+. They tightened it up pretty well with only Kimbrell and Uehara back from injury. Workman should be healthy and and back to normal by June. No problems with Ross, Layne vs only lefties. I actually like it now.
That’s an awful lot for Tazawa considering he pitched to a 4.14ERA with a 1.33WHIP. A deal like that, mostly year wise, is far too much for Red Sox to even think about, at least not until he pitches better in 2016.
It’s really a steal. Taz was worn down. His numbers were the same until August and then he just imploded. He’s top 5 in game appearances among all pitchers last 3 seasons. Very effective. Velocity fades as year/appearances pile up. Having Koji as help in setup role will help and *if* they can get him on an extension for just 15m/3y, I’d be ecstatic. Think if he hits the market after 2016 and his numbers hold, he tops 20m over 3y.