The Yankees were recently in contact with C.C. Sabathia, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). The southpaw said after the season that he hoped to return to the Bronx, and it was widely assumed that Sabathia was something of a backup plan for the Yankees if the club missed out on landing Shohei Ohtani. New York did check in with Sabathia, as per Heyman, even before today’s news broke that the Yankees wouldn’t be receiving a meeting with Ohtani and his representatives. Sabathia is both a well-respected veteran and he’s been a quietly-effective innings-eater over the last few seasons, so on paper, he could be seen as the favorite for the Yankees’ fifth starter job at this point in the offseason.
Some more rumblings from around the AL East…
- Evan Longoria’s name hasn’t been “seriously involved” in any trade discussions between the Rays and Cardinals, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets, though Morosi says to “stay tuned” should the Cards fail to land Giancarlo Stanton. St. Louis has been known to be looking for an impact bat this winter and will likely explore several alternatives if they come up short in their pursuit of Stanton, so it makes sense that the Cardinals could expand their talks with the Rays about Alex Colome to also include Longoria. Obstacles to a deal, however, include the $86MM Longoria is owed through the 2022 season, his age (32), and the fact that he is coming off his worst offensive season (.312 wOBA, 96 wRC+).
- The Rays will be heavily counting on internal arms to fill several holes in the bullpen, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The club has already parted ways with Brad Boxberger, Xavier Cedeno, and Chase Whitley, and Tommy Hunter, Sergio Romo, and Steve Cishek are free agents. This opens the door for several young pitchers to win relief jobs, or starters that don’t make the rotation could be used in the pen. “While we want to make sure we have a stable group, we also want to ensure we are giving every opportunity to those guys to realize their upside,” senior VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said.
- A poor season could lead to the Orioles dealing some veterans at the trade deadline and a possible rebuild, though BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Dan Connolly doubts that the team would embark on a total scorched-earth rebuild a la the Astros or Cubs. It’s also probably unlikely that a struggling O’s team would even deal impending free agent Manny Machado (barring an impossible-to-refuse offer) at the deadline due to Peter Angelos’ philosophy that “the season-ticket holders paid to see a certain team and weakening that promised product in-season is disingenuous.”
- Also from Connolly’s mailbag piece, he doesn’t see the Orioles landing any of the top arms in the free agent market, so the club could check into acquiring a highly-paid pitcher coming off a down season. The O’s likely wouldn’t have to give up much minor league talent in return, plus the other team would probably be covering at least some of the pitcher’s contract. A bad contract swap could also be a consideration, as the O’s could help make up the salaries by dealing one of their own expensive players that might no longer be a fit — Connolly cites Mark Trumbo as a prime candidate in this scenario. This wouldn’t be a perfect fit to solve Baltimore’s pitching woes, though it would at least re-direct some funds towards the Orioles’ pressing need in the rotation.
I’m a fan of longoria, but trading for him at this point seems like a mistake. I really don’t see any improvement in his game coming as he ages. the contract isn’t terrible. it’s essentially Matt Holliday money. he’d be a good piece, but not THE piece.
Personally I think the Longoria rumors are ginned up by the Tampa Bay Times for click bait. No one will offer a package worth all the negative backlash it would generate in their TV market(which is solid). Colome and Odorizzi are the biggest names actually on the block IMHO.
I agree with fmj. …. In his prime years would have been the time to go after Longoria.
We can do better tbh. losing out on Ohtani could put them in the trade market
How can you keep the players if you ain’t willing to bring players in to help to win. Instead of getting mediocre talent
Sign CC and not Cobb. Don’t need big money on Cobb when you’re trying to go all out next season
Cobb wouldn’t cost “big money”.
So Angelos wants to please the season ticket holders for just one season so bad? And what happens when all the free agents bolt (Machado, Britton, and Jones) and they get nothing in return?
If they’re not going to pursue a Cobb or at least a Chatwood, the season’s lost already. Might as well deal the vets and get what you can. This team is going nowhere.
They seem to operate so weird. It’s like they’re refusing to adapt to the way teams build themselves nowadays. Why is being mediocre over and over better than being bad for four and then good for a decade? Whenever Angelos decides to sell is when that team will become competent and then eventually be contenders
Similar state as the Mets, with less drama.
Nah they sign international free agents to bolster their farm, not trade money away for AAAA players
If this would have been serious talk a few years ago, I would have said sure go try to get Longo. But now? Doesn’t make much sense IMO
Skaggs and Johnson for Trumbo would work. Trumbo gets to be where he belongs. The O’s get a young cost control starting pitcher and get out from Trumbo’s contract.
Wait, your suggesting this as an angels fan?
why do the Angels consider this they could sign someone better for less and not trade a acontrolable starter
Skaggs will be the odd man out next season. The Angels need a stop gap first baseman to give Matt Thiass the time he needs to develop. Cron needs to be traded for anything they can get for him.
As an angels fan, i miss trumbo but the angels need a lefty bat
Moustakas at third base. Valbuena on the bench.
as an o’s fan i’d love to see them trade trumbo for a pitcher who will likely improve, even if the deal includes another bad contract with him
how much better is lango than gyakko or a similar player at this point. cards have tons of stuff starters they need a superstar
Longo’s salary is only going up while is skill set is slowly (but surely) sliding down!
Cardinals need to avoid that like the plague…
Agree, but Longoria might be looking for a way out… he’s never going to get the World Series again with TB. He’s a good piece to a puzzle and a great clubhouse guy as well as contributor… maybe STL would give him a push back in the right direction.. still his down season is a lot of players plus season.
I’m trying to think of pitchers on bad contracts that the O’s could swap for with trumbo. The only one I can think of is m. Moore possibly in SF.
Maybe Jordan Zimmerman.
Longoria has one down season and people are acting like he is done. He was just a 36 hr hitter the year before. If he has a couple of down seasons then I will agree. But I think he should stay in TB.
I’d agree with you, if Longoria didn’t have the kind of seasons he had in 2014-2015.
I bet Angelos looked over the list of non-tendered SPs over the weekend, excitedly called Duquette, and said, “Danny, our troubles are over!” I totally see BAL signing AT LEAST 2 of those non-tendered pitchers and plugging them into the rotation.
No! Don’t re-sign CC. You got everything out of him there was to get. He’s got nothing left. Go after someone younger with more upside.