The Blue Jays and Mets have both reached out to the representatives for free-agent center fielder Lorenzo Cain, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Crasnick also lists the Rangers, Mariners and Giants as more speculative fits for Cain’s services.
While both Toronto and New York already have standout defensive center fielders in Kevin Pillar and Juan Lagares, respectively, adding Cain to the outfield mix in either organization could create an elite defensive unit. The Blue Jays have a more pronounced need in the outfield, though young Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Alford could both work their way into regular roles next year. The Mets would appear to be more set with Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto both in the mix alongside Lagares, but Conforto’s status is something of a question mark following shoulder surgery. Speaking purely speculatively, acquiring Cain could also allow either club to trade from its stock of outfielders.
Cain, 32 next April, hit .300/.363/.440 with 15 homers and 26 steals in 645 plate appearances with the Royals in 2017. While he’s never turned in a below-average season in the outfield by virtually any defensive metric, this past season was his weakest in that regard. Defensive Runs Saved pegged him at +5 runs in center field, while Ultimate Zone Rating had him at +1.6. Statcast’s new Outs Above Average metric still pegged Cain as one of baseball’s truly elite outfielders; he ranked fifth among all outfielders with a sterling mark of +15.
Cain will reportedly reject the Royals’ $17.4MM qualifying offer, meaning he’ll cost any club that signs him some resources in next year’s draft. Specifically, the Jays and the Mets would forfeit their second-highest pick and $500K worth of next year’s international signing pool in order to sign Cain, as MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently explained. The Rangers would face that same penalty, while the Mariners would only need to forfeit their third-highest selection. Of the teams listed by Crasnick, the Giants would pay the steepest penalty — forfeiting their second- and fifth-highest draft selections as well as $1MM worth of international spending money. San Francisco is “juggling a lot of balls” at present, per Crasnick.
The Royals, meanwhile, would land a compensatory draft pick after the first round so long as Cain signs a contract worth more than $50MM in total guarantees. That seems exceedingly likely to be the case, wherever he signs. In the off-chance that Cain somehow comes up shy of $50MM, Kansas City’s comp pick would come after Competitive Balance Round B in next year’s draft.
I’m more concerned about the term (years) with Cain…. the first thing that comes to mind is Carl Crawford & the Red Sox.. once those legs leave him, there’s a good chance he could be considerably less valuable. Not sure he’d be that interested in taking over a corner OF position either, because I can’t see Pillar making the move based off of how talented he is on defense. (Barring any moves of course)
Crawford was never the same post tj
Firstly, Pilar makes seemingly every catch look difficult. He always takes two steps back. Secondly never assume a players wants, a full time position in the bigs means a lot more even if it’s RF opposed to a minor league contract.
Cain is going to get paid.. when you’re as good as he is you’re allowed to have say in what and where you want to play. He’s far from a minor league contract.
Buyer beware.
Y’all remember that John Lithgow flick RAISING CAIN? That was the billznatch
Please don’t do this Mets.
Agreed.
– Curtis Granderson
I doubt he’ll get a 4 year deal but I could see a 3 year plus option easily. A team that’s all in could take the chance and flip him if things don’t fall into place.
Trade pillar his defence is awesome but can’t hit
Lol do it Mets. I wanna see another FA bust for the Mets
The Mets are in on everyone until they find out the asking price is more than $1M per year.
Unless your name is Michael Cuddyer.
Why are the Mets such a bad franchise?
They are only 2 years removed from attending the WS and 1 year from a wild card appearance. I wouldn’t go that far and say they’re a bad franchise.
on field wise, they are by no means a bad franchise, but behind the scenes, they are a joke. They have trainers that tell the players to go to the gym and get “big”, but they don’t treat the players. Terry Collins was advised to lie about player injuries, which happen every game. Cespedes sneezes and he has to be carted off
Oh god, Mets, please don’t spend limited funds on an aging CF whose best tool is the thing that goes first: speed/defense. If ownership is going to make us spend like a mid-market, we can’t waste significant $$ & years on modest improvements.
Lorenzon Cain makes sense with allot of teams. The Mets and Giants need to get younger so Cain doesn’t seem to help there. I like Cain in Seattle, Texas, Philadelphia, St Louis and Arizona.
St. Louis doesn’t need Cain. They are trying to trade OF now.
If this is true, Jays are just kicking tires.- they are looking to get younger.
I️ see him gettin 3 year 70 million dollar deal with a team option for the 4th year to give him a tad bit fi hope that he’s still be playing then. I️ think you get 2 years on par with last year maybe more but when his legs are gone it turns into a bad contract. Loved him as a royals fan. We are gonna suck for a bit but I️ hope he finds a good situation like the blue jays. Also would prefer he sign for over 50 mil cause with him, hos and moose plus our original pick we will have 4 first next year