Here’s the latest from Camden Yards…
- The Orioles have engaged Yoenis Cespedes and other “high-end” free agent outfielders in talks, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets. This interest stems both from the apparent stalemate between Chris Davis and the O’s, and also simply from the fact that so many top outfielders are still available. It makes sense that Baltimore would check in on other big bats in lieu of an agreement with Davis, though landing the likes of Cespedes could be difficult if the team was indeed only willing to offer a $150MM contract to Davis himself. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes projected Cespedes and Justin Upton to land deals in the $140MM-$147MM range this winter, though those two represent the top of the market — Alex Gordon, for instance, was projected for a $105MM price tag, while other options like Dexter Fowler or Denard Span are another tier or two down.
- Since the Orioles have at least shown the willingness to spend top dollar, Olney reports (in his latest subscription-only column) that the team has received quite a few calls from agents.
- The O’s have been in contact with Scott Boras, Davis’ agent, which the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly interprets as a positive sign even if he doesn’t think there’s necessarily a lot of progress being made. Connolly also warns fans to not get over-confident about the idea of Davis returning — while the O’s seem to be the only major suitors for the first baseman’s services to date, Boras has a history of waiting to find an unexpected bidder that will match his client’s asking price.
- Kevin Gausman is “off limits” in trade talks, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes, though teams often ask about the young righty. Jason Garcia, another right-hander, also drew a lot of interest at the Winter Meetings, as did first baseman Christian Walker and prospects Jomar Reyes, Chance Sisco and Trey Mancini.
Cespedes for the rest of us?????? The O’s should pass. Save the teams money!!!!!
I said it once, and I will say it again – If a teams gives Davis more than $150 million dollars, let alone anything close to $200 million, then they are CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY!!!
That’s what everyone said about Nelson Cruz,, too.
I think that Davis and Upton are going to get around 7 / $155 million. …..and Cespedes is going to get 6 / $132 million. None of those 3 are worth $200 mil.
ESPECIALLY Davis. At least the others are replacement level or better OFers.
A Royals related website (meaning written by fans) said a few weeks ago or whatever it was stated that Alex Gordon had no interest in coming to the East Coast.
Does anyone know this is true? Because as far as I am concerned, Alex Gordon would be a perfect fit for the O’s and he really is the one that I want.
Cespedes is nice, but it’s Gordon that I would want.
If the O’s could swing a trade for CarGo and have the outfield of Gordon, Jones, and CarGo, that would be incredible and I gotta believe other O’s types would find it equally exciting. Just have the O’s outhit the competition, if anything the O’s would be entertaining.
Check out cargos home/away splits, no thanks.
I say for this year and next void Boris clients unless it’s reasonable/ fans are so tired of that guy
everyone’s fed up with Scot Boris
Except the players that he represents and gets them paid well. If you were going to a new employer wouldn’t you want somebody with a track record of getting clients paid over market value?
Yet he does his job well.
I know the fans hate Boris.But if I was a player Boris would be my agent in a minute.The man does his job,and is very good at it.He isnt there for the fans,his one job is to get his client the most $ he can..I dont care for him either,but he is the best bulldog agent in the business.
Surprisingly getting every last penny isn’t the main goal of every player. Jordan Zimmermann for example.
This is exactly correct…Boras does not care what anyone thinks of him, except for two kinds of people: his clients and his potential clients!!
If I were still playing baseball, and actually had the talent to make it up to the big leagues, I would sign Boras in a heartbeat.
As ball players, your career is absolutely limited. You can only get so many contracts, and you never truly know which one will be your last!! With that being said, I’m sure anyone would want a man willing to fight the opposition for you, toe to toe, to get you the absolute most money and/or best deal possible!! Regardless whether we, as fans, like it or not, that man is Scott Boras…
He might not be the most liked person, but he is definitely the best agent, money can buy, to represent a player.
Do I personally like the man? No, but with his hard work ethic, and then results he gets his clients, it certainly makes it hard not to respect him as the top player’s agent in baseball..
If the O’s pass on Davis and instead end up with Gordon for LF, Gallardo for the rotation, and Jaso to platoon at DH with Reimold, I’ll be quite happy with the offseason. Or, Davis at 1B (moving Trumbo to DH) and Fowler to play RF works as well, although it means we need a rotation filler (Alfredo Simon) rather than an upgrade (Gallardo, Leake, etc.).
Not a bad offseason indeed. I love Crush, but I see the contract looking awful in 4 years, maybe even earlier. The money would be much better allocated to a SP and Gordon. Plus maybe swing a trade for Jay Bruce to fill the hole in RF. That would also add two lefty bats to the lineup which we desperately need in the lineup. Just need Angelos to open up the wallet!
As entertaining as it would be, the most you can hope for from the O’s is one more outfielder. They fully expect that the recently-signed Kim will handle one corner OF spot (probably LF) so the chances of trading for CarGo and signing Gordon or any other free agent OF simultaneously is near zero.
Ask Kendrys Morales how good of a job Scott Boras did for him. Considering Morales has different representation nowadays I’d say his opinion of the man is a little lower than others.
One unhappy client out of every 50 isnt bad.There is one main reason why contracts are out of this world right now,you guessed it Scot Boras.He doesnt let the teams stash all that TV money and not get the clients share of it.Dont get me wrong,he isnt good for the fans and the teams,but for the individual player HE IS THE MAN
Ask Steven Drew how he feels about him then.
My team avoids dealing with Boras clients if they can possibly help it, and I wish every other team would do the same. You would quickly see his number of clients start taking a drop when everyone refused to buy his rubbish.
Personally, as a fan, I can’t stand the guy. I don’t like paying $50 for a nosebleed seat because the payroll has to include all the dead weight from all the players that were good 10 years ago.
Get rid of Boras or get rid of guaranteed contracts in baseball, because the ticket prices are out of control, and Boras has a large part to play in that.
Ask them what they think of him?
Dustin Ackley of the New York Yankees
Pedro Alvarez of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers
Mark Appel of the Houston Astros
Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies
Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs
Adrián Beltré of the Texas Rangers
Willie Bloomquist of the Arizona Diamondbacks
Xander Bogaerts of the Boston Red Sox
Michael Bourn of the Atlanta Braves
Brad Boxberger of the Tampa Bay Rays
Jackie Bradley, Jr. of the Boston Red Sox
Zach Britton of the Baltimore Orioles
Domonic Brown of the Philadelphia Phillies
Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs
Everth Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants
Wei-Yin Chen of the Baltimore Orioles
Shin-Soo Choo of the Texas Rangers
Chris Coghlan of the Chicago Cubs
Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Michael Conforto of the New York Mets
Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles
Stephen Drew of the New York Yankees
Jacoby Ellsbury of the New York Yankees
Danny Espinosa of the Washington Nationals
Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins
Prince Fielder of the Texas Rangers
Josh Fields of the Houston Astros
Carlos González of the Colorado Rockies
Gio González of the Washington Nationals
Carlos Gómez of the Houston Astros
Alex Guerrero of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals
Matt Harvey of the New York Mets
Jeremy Hellickson of the Philadelphia Phillies
Luke Hochevar of the Kansas City Royals
Greg Holland of the Kansas City Royals
Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals
Eric Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals
Jose Iglesias of the Detroit Tigers
Austin Jackson of the Chicago Cubs
Desmond Jennings of the Tampa Bay Rays
Jair Jurrjens of the Baltimore Orioles
Ian Kennedy of the San Diego Padres
Kyle Lohse of the Milwaukee Brewers
Lance McCullers, Jr. of the Houston Astros
Mike Moustakas of the Kansas City Royals
Marcell Ozuna of the Miami Marlins
James Paxton of the Seattle Mariners
Mike Pelfrey of the Minnesota Twins
Óliver Pérez of the Arizona Diamondbacks
Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals
Francisco Rodríguez of the Milwaukee Brewers
Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox
Trevor Rosenthal of the St. Louis Cardinals
Addison Russell of the Chicago Cubs
Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals
Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals
Denard Span of the Washington Nationals
Taylor Teagarden of the Chicago Cubs
Carlos Triunfel of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Troy Tulowitzki of the Toronto Blue Jays
Jacob Turner of the Chicago Cubs
Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Jayson Werth of the Washington Nationals
Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles
Barry Zito of the Oakland A’s
You can blame Boras, but facts say otherwise. MLB owners have a larger percentage of the revenue in comparison to the other major sports. Which would indicate players are not compensated on average to market
I hate to keep repeating myself but I would still like to see the Braves send a package of Freeman and Markakis over to Baltimore. He wont hit the HRs that Davis will but Freeman will give you good production at 1st base and it seems as most Orioles fans want Kak back so I would like to see Atlanta make it happen
Who would the Orioles send to the Braves to acquire Freeman?
We don’t have enough to offer as far as I know.
I am not familiar with the farm system for many teams outside of Atlanta and a few others but at this point, Freeman should be a salary dump like Simmons was. If they were worried about the backloaded contract of Simmons, they should really be concerned with Freeman’s. And with Markakis being older and making decent money, he should be moved to. But these are just my opinions
The Orioles could send their whole farm; still not gonna get Freeman and Markakis.
Love him or hate it, there are players that teams want that he represents. They include Harper, Strasburg, Arenado, Kris Bryant, Xander Bogaerts, Gerrit Cole, Jose Fernandez, Jake Arrieta, among others. So you may hate him, but as a fanbase, to say you won’t want to deal with him is missing out on those players by construct. Granted, many teams won’t be able to afford those players, but it’s somewhat short sighted, even if it’s understandable.
We would take Markakis back in a heartbeat
They have their new Markakis type player in Hyun-soo Kim.
The package to move Freeman would be way too costly for a team light on talent in the minors to begin with. A trade like this would gut the Orioles system.
^ This.
Someone earlier said the O’s should take $1M off thier offer every day to Davis. How about 1 year off? A guy that requires Adderrol to hit MLB pitching should not be getting paid $100M or more to play the game. He’s cheating. If everyone can’t take it for a reason then he shouldn’t be allowed to, either.
Cespedes is the one guy who should get an elite pay day in that group. Upton, not so much.