Free agent center fielder Ben Revere is reportedly likely to sign in the near future (as MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko first relayed earlier today), and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets that the Blue Jays won’t be his landing spot. That crosses the Blue Jays and Orioles (per Kubatko) off the list for Revere — two teams that could conceivably be in the market for a left-handed-hitting outfielder with some speed. Multiple teams still make some degree of sense for Revere, with the Giants, Mariners, Rangers, Angels and Tigers all striking me as on-paper fits (though that list is purely speculative). Non-tendered by the Nats this offseason, Revere logged a dismal .217/.260/.300 batting line in 375 plate appearances in 2016, but he’d batted .305 or better in each of the three prior seasons.
- Braves president of baseball operations John Hart spoke with MLB.com’s Hal Bodley about the parallels between the rebuild he’s helped to architect in Atlanta and the one that he led in Cleveland back in the early to mid-90s. Hart also discussed the team’s decision to promote Dansby Swanson this past summer and the decision to add a trio of veteran starters — Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey, Jaime Garcia — this winter despite the team’s bulk of young pitching. “We didn’t want to stand in the way of our young pitchers, so we went with guys who I think are going to give us innings,” said Hart of adding three starters on one-year commitments. “I think this gives us a more competitive ballclub going into the new park. I don’t think this deviates from the plan we have.”
- The Yankees “appear content” with Matt Holliday serving as the major offensive addition to their roster this winter, writes MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, which increases the importance of Greg Bird to the team’s 2017 roster. Bird is the early favorite to serve as manager Joe Girardi’s everyday first baseman next year, and GM Brian Cashman said that getting a look at Bird in the Arizona Fall League was important. “All we care about is him having a full healthy Fall League, which he’s done,” said Cashman. “It checks the box and we’ll be looking forward to seeing him in Spring Training. All reports are, he looks good.” Bird and Tyler Austin could compete for time at first base and may eventually settle into a platoon, while the outfield could see Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks in a similar spring battle for playing time, Hoch writes.
- Nationals right-hander Joe Ross missed significant time with a shoulder injury in 2016, but MLB.com’s Jamal Collier writes that the 23-year-old’s arm is back to health. Ross took a few weeks off to rest his shoulder, and it’s now full strength as Ross progresses through his typical offseason routine. As Collier points out, the trades of Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez magnify the importance of getting a healthy season out of Ross. Notably, Ross said he’s tinkering with some potential mechanical alterations to his delivery and throwing program in an effort to stay healthier next year.
Revere to the Tigers
I have to agree.
I certainly hope so. Anything involving Gose as the CF would be a disaster. Revere would be a nice upgrade
Yep I don’t see any other team needing him more than the Tigers.
Revere belongs on the White Sox. Only place he’ll see playing time.
Yes bring him on
Angels are a prime destination for him to re-establish his value. Everyone and my neighbor’s dogs know that Cameron Maybin likely will onknever be healthy enough for 90-110 games, so there’s up to 72 games for Revere to potentially start based on that projection. Kole Calhoun will probably have a few nagging injuries here and there, given how hard he plays and I would guess about 140 games for him, so possibly add up to another 22 for Revere right there. Then there’s always the possibility that Mike Trout could possibly see his first DL stint. Let’s say it’s one stint so add up to about 13 games in one possible trip to the 15 day DL for Trout, making the total come out to up to 107. Then you have pinch hitting, pinch running, etc. that could bump it up to 130 games for Revere. Just a ballpark estimate, no pun intended. There’s a lot of playing time that could open up for Revere on the Angels. And you could probably say the same thing for a lot of teams, which is probably why he hasn’t signed yet.
I will be very disappointed in Eppler if he doesn’t bring Revere to the Angels.
Revere checks a lot of boxes: LH hitter, speed, can play all three OF positions, should come at reasonable cost after last season. I would expect a reasonable bounce back season, too.
I think you can see where this logic falls flat. You are assuming injuries to all three outfielders, but also assuming that none of these injuries would coincide with any of the others. That would be quite remarkable.
Logic is fine. Obviously, no team has the luxury of predicting time and duration of injuries.
The point was that Revere would find his ideal situation be one where he starts and doesn’t ride the bench all year. Ryan was only pointing out that Revere could easily expect a certain number of starts in the year, based upon past injuries to Maybin and Calhoun. If both went down at the same time, that doesn’t change the calculation for Revere’s potential number of starts, only that a 5th OF would be employed.
Well the logic of the actual numbers is flawed. Per Ryan’s scenario, Revere reaches 107 starts from Maybin missing 72 games, Calhoun missing 22 games, and Trout missing 13 games. This would only be true if no more than one of these players were injured at the same time, because Revere can’t replace two of those players at the same time.
That being said, the basic premise of the argument makes sense. Revere would get some good opportunity in LA to reestablish himself. Always loved Revere, especially for his famous “Pray for Boston” catch.
I see what you’re saying. Ultimately, with Maybin’s history of fragility and Calhoun beating up his body playing flat-out, there would be plenty of opportunities for Revere to start in 2017. Unless his offensive funk continued, he would see his name on the lineup card quite frequently.
Well put, and thought out Ryan.
The Mariners do not need another left handed hitting outfielder. Any left handed hitter for that matter. The Mets are a better fit if they got rid of Granderson or Bruce. A platoon with Lagares
As a Halos fan, I’d love for Revere to come down to Anaheim. I agree with your Ryan Krol ^^^^
Revere is perfect for the Giants
Revere is perfect for nobody. He isn’t very good.
Funny, when the Blue Jays acquired him, their offense went into the stratosphere,and when they sent him packing, they returned to being just very good. He’s got a dimension many teams are starting to realize they need…speed and decent D. Yes he had a lousy 2016, but he’s a good risk to take.
Well said. I was onboard for the Storen/Revere trade last year, but it was apparent they really missed him at the top of their order in 2016.
Please stop. Bautista was hurt and impacted by the effects of those injuries most of the year. JD had nagging injuries as well. Tulo missed time and is naturally declining, as is Martin. Their decline in offense was due to injury and aging, not because they didn’t have a slap hitting batter who hit .300 but hardly ever walked
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Damn phone!
Szagski that was the perfect response!
Revere would fit in perfectly with the Angels….they need a guy like him.
Why would the jays not be interested in revere? Especially after losing out on EE. He got less then we offered which shows we want to go in a different direction. Younger faster better D more contact etc.
Please tell me it’s because they have a planned run at a votto/Hamilton trade to bring a lil power contact defense and speed
As much as a Votto/Hamilton trade would be wonderful, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I have faith in Atkins and Shapiro, but it is dwindling. Missing out on EE hurts, but not even considering a guy who brings speed and D (two things you want), not to mention he’s still young just doesn’t make sense.
Reveres not a good defender or hitter
Chats were all over the place this week, no Thursday chat and tuesdays moved to Monday. Not complaining, just an observation.
You guys do a fantastic job and look forward to the post all the time. By far the best site for fantastic non bias sports info.
I wish everyone who contributes to the site a very happy holiday and safe New Years.
It’s the week of Christmas and these guys have families, kids, etc. too. We all get a life outside our jobs. Or at least we should.
Yeah, unfortunately we had to shuffle things up due to Jeff and I traveling home to see family for the holidays. We try to be as regular with them a possible, but this time of year certainly tends to be tricky in that regard.
I totally understand, again, not complaining at all. You guys deserve some much need time to yourselves and your families.
Happy Holidays
I don’t see any other reason for the Braves to have signed these veterans other than they feel they wouldn’t finish in last place for 2017. Because if they did they would have done what rebuilding teams like the Padres did and sign low level free agents to 1 year contracts purely for innings.
The three guys (Colon, Dickey, Garcia) the Braves signed/acquired are pretty decent pitchers.
All these pitchers could also serve as mid-season trade bait
Bc a payroll of 80 million would have had the fan base beyond pissed. We were promised spending and a competitive team. The 35-40 million (adding in Rodriguez) creates the illusion of spending. It allows us to delay newk and albies arb clocks. It also allowed us to turn spare parts into a decent bp arm and a 1st round bat plus whatever “prospect cash” and salary relief comes from the trade deadline. The FO salivates over comp picks lol 2018 isnt that far away. We also gotta get ready for the twenties. Continuing to Cherry pick talent for pretty decent 1year vets is a large part in that. We want a shot at a dynasty.
With players on a six year clock to FA, today’s dynasty has a three year window. Look at KC. It took the prospects a couple years to establish themselves. They had three years to take a shot. Now, they are trying to trade them before they get nothing in return. I’m baffled why this is the model everyone is trying to copy.
A 3 year window is what most smaller market teams need and probably all they can ask for. Not everyone is the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers who could develop a young core and then pay everyone in that core to stick around for years. Even the Cubs may struggle to build a true dynasty because of the large contracts they already have on the books.
Mets. Trade Granderson and Bruce and sign Revere to platoon with Lagares.
Never mind I didn’t realize Revere was so bad defensively. Wow that’s bad.
Yeah. I’ve been puzzled by all the people mentioning his good defense too. I suppose he has a skill set that might make one *think* he’s a good defensive player, I.e., he’s fast, but he takes terrible routes to the ball and he can’t throw.
Yeah that’s basically it. I just kinda assumed he was competent.
I’d like this a lot- but only if Revere became a super pinch runner.
Revere to the braves with Mallex in AAA
All revere is anymore is a 4th-5th OFer
christian18cutshaw personally I don’t see the addition of Revere to the Braves bench as likely. The Braves currently have an outfield that consists of 3 players whom seldom sit out when not injured (which is supposedly one of the deciding factors to send Mallex Smith back down to AAA because of lack of opportunities for playing time). The Braves already have 3 players on their likely bench who all can play just about any outfield position in Sean Rodriguez, Jace Peterson, and Chase d’Arnaud. (of course all three are more limited in some of the outfield positions than others). I think it is entirely likely that if any injury happened that would cause any of the starters to miss enough time for a DL spot then Mallex Smith would be immediately called up to play that position on a regular basis (thus kinda eliminating one of the bigger needs for a left handed hitting speedy bench player like Revere).
That brings into question then, who then would the Braves likely look to when filling the rest of the bench. My best guess is someone who still has flexibility (corner outfield, corner infield and 2b) and that would be for Kelly Johnson to resign with the Braves. Obviously it would be strange for him (or anyone) to sign with Atlanta three off seasons consecutively but he is familiar with the team, his wife and kids are rooted in Atlanta (one of his kids practically begged him to resign with the Braves last season so he’d have his dad around more even with the known possibility of being traded during the season), KJ is familiar and comfortable with a bench role, and he still has some pop in his bat.
Two other possible free agent bench signings (although obviously I’m not suggesting any scenario with all the names I mention) would be Rajai Davis in case the Braves decide to go with a dedicated extra outfielder (although not overly likely) or Chris Coghlan (who has experience in multiple positions).
Of course I could be all wrong since I’m trying to base my suggested bench players on what I’ve seen the team do in the past, the players available now, and publicly stated comments (about types of players and such) that have come out of the Braves country over the last several months. In other words just my own conjecture. I just don’t see the Braves wanting to offer Revere more than an ultra cheap one year deal even IF in the event they offered him one at all, and then Revere wouldn’t get much play time to try to re-establish his value. I just don’t see Revere to Atlanta as likely.
Southi I would never place you in the “all wrong” category. Good analysis of needs and desires. As probably laughable as it is, the KJ resigning is probably best and most possible.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you as well!
Ok Toronto. Back to back ALCS, I’m impatiently waiting for this offseason to make sense (go for it or blow it up, just pick a direction)
Revere to the White Sox?
Of course the Jays wouldn’t be in on Revere, because it’s a need for thier club. Nothing surprises me with Dumb and Dumber running this ball club
Nope, they got this one right for a change. If this was there plan the they are better off giving Pompey a shot. His defender aline would make as valuable as Revere and it is pretty much time to see if he is just a AAAA player or not.
Pompey has already proven he’s a AAAA player. He’s nothing more than a depth piece for the playoffs to sit on the bench and try and steal a base in crunch time, he has one plus tool. He’s not even the first guy up in the event on an injury
So your telling me, you would rather have Pompey in the outfield, rather than Revere? Go back to managing your fantasy team…
Anyone who thinks Span is coming to the Braves hasn’t been paying attention to what has been said by our front office.
Cardinals could use a speedy LH hitting 4th/5th OF to pair with Pham off the bench. Fowler, Grichuk and (especially) Pham all have some recent injury history and the current projections for the 25 man only have those 3 plus Piscotty in the OF. Revere or Dyson make a lot of sense to me, but would have to make some room off the 40 man.