Brewers ace Jimmy Nelson is “way ahead of schedule” in his rehab from shoulder surgery, reports MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. The initial plan for Nelson had been to begin a throwing program at the beginning of Spring Training, but Nelson tells McCalvy that he’ll now begin throwing next week. Nelson credits his accelerated timeline to regular use of a hyperbaric chamber, improved conditioning and diet as well as rigorous arm care and physical therapy.
The shortened timeline is music to the Brewers’ ears, though an exact timetable for Nelson remains uncertain following a September operation which, as McCalvy notes, repaired his shoulder in three separate places. Milwaukee already signed Jhoulys Chacin to a two-year deal, and they’ll return right-handers Chase Anderson and Zach Davies as well. That trio will be relied upon heavily while Nelson rehabs, with other candidates to take the ball every fifth day including Brent Suter, Josh Hader, Brandon Woodruff, Junior Guerra, Jorge Lopez ,Aaron Wilkerson and old friend Yovani Gallado (among others).
Elsewhere in the NL Central…
- Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is currently planning to retire after his current contract expires in 2020, he tells MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch. Molina says his body still feels up to the rigors of his typically large workload, adding that he has no plans to cut back on his playing time at the age of 35. There’s time, of course, for Molina’s mind to change on the matter of retirement. If he remains healthy and productive through the 2020 season and the Cardinals remain in contention, for instance, it’s not difficult to envision a change of heart. That said, Langosch notes that Molina sounded much more definitive on the matter this time around than he did a year ago when discussing his future after signing a three-year, $60MM extension that spans the 2018-20 seasons.
- Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts was dismissive of the notion that collusion has slowed the free-agent market in an interview with Patrick Mooney of The Athletic (subscription required & recommended). Ricketts pointed out that in previous years, some teams have somewhat quietly inked new television deals or had those deals kick in, which has led to unexpected spending. (Ricketts doesn’t mention instances by name, though that was very likely a component in the D-backs’ signing of Zack Greinke, for instance.) Asked about the possibility of further spending for his own team, Ricketts replied: “Theo has the resources to do whatever he needs to do to win on the field. … I don’t know what’s going to happen with the guys that are out there, whether it’s a good fit for us.” Mooney also chats with newly promoted AGM Scott Harris about the slow offseason.
Would be nice to see Molina retire a Cardinal
I’m not a Cards fan but I truly hope he does retire a cardinal. He deserves it and so do the fans. He’s been an amazing player for so long and hope he continues to be except for when he plays SF.
As a Cubs fan, gotta agree. Respect him 4 sure.
When he goes, Mlb won’t be the same without a Molina behind the plate somewhere.
Hopefully Bengie or Jose have a son or more ready to take over for Uncle Yad behind the plate.
I’m sure he will be in a dugout somewhere coaching. He has basically been the cardinals pitching coach.
Yup. He can’t be moved. He’s a cardinal legend.
Same as a Brewers fan. Every franchise, even ones I don’t like, deserves to have great iconic players they can definitively call their own. Molina is that player for the Cardinals.
Yea, Im sure he has a couple more stuck balls on his chest protector. Might as well be with the Cards.
Really dude? Gotta ruin the moment huh?
Always an A-Hole in the room!
I still want to know how that happened
Molina has been a class act for the Cardinals. On and off the field!! Great in the clubhouse. Positive role model. Fantastic with taking young players under his wing. I hope the Cardinals have a plan to advancing him in the future as a Cardinal Manager.
Seriously…..The guy spit in an umpires face and got suspended a few years ago. I hope he does retire a Cardinal, but he hasn’t always be a class act.
Didn’t both of his brothers play until they were 40?
They were not worked as hard as Yad has.
he will retire a cardinal and be forever worshipped by cards fans, wonder if pujols will get same treatment from fans in LA when he retires
He will retire a Cardinal and that’s a fact.
Sounds like Rickets wants to sign some more free agents doesn’t it?
Sounds like Rickets wants Theo and Jed to spend some money!
Yep, all those over pays for relievers were due to collusion.
Yeah santana taking 3 years 60 mill was collusion too.
The market is flooded with cheaper competition for hosmer and moustakas and teams seem wary of dishing out huge contracts to pitchers this year probably cause of watching lester, price, greinke, sanchez, zimmerman, jackson, shields, leake, cueto, samardjza, chen just go south within the 1st 2 years, which is really working against darvish and arrieta.
Well said, bad contracts stick out for pitchers
The days of cashing in on past performance in your early 30s could be winding down. The new blood in the front offices grew up watching large contracts to free agents not pan out more often than not.
This is the most honest, fresh take I’ve seen all offseason on this subject. Even Theo is learning from past mistakes when he was trying to keep up with the Cashmans.
Wish he had learned before he signed Heyward.
They signed gallardo to a 1 year deal as well.
Not sure whether it’s a faux pas or not to put a link in a comment here, but here’s an interview with David Stearns saying he plans on using Josh Hader at least to some extent as a starter this year:
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155664723313…
Ricketts’ comments make me wonder why the Cubs didn’t go all-in on Scherzer or Chapman. The Heyward deal makes less and less sense as well. He’s not even an overall top-10 right fielder right.
They went for Lester in 2015 instead of Scherzer. And who knew Heyward would struggle so badly after joining the Cubs.
Scherzer is better than Lester, and his contract is very club friendly. Regarding Heyward, no one who followed baseball thought he was worth the contract the Cubs gave him. If you get the green light to spend from an owner, why settle for less if your Epstein? Now they’re stuck trying to figure out how to get rid of Heyward, which is a surprise to no one except casual Cubs fans.
*You’re
No one in baseball thought Heyward was worth the contract, yet two teams offered him more money. Interesting.
You also mention that Scherzer’s contract is “team friendly”. Well, beginning next season (2019) and running through 2021, it’s over 42 million a year. That’s 42 with a F in front of the -orty and not a T in front of the -hirty. I don’t care what is deferred. $42 million to make a max of 32 starts seems pretty player friendly to me. Nobody is arguing that Scherzer is better than Lester—I don’t think anyone ever has.
But as your name leads me to infer that you may be a White Sox fan, are any of the players or pitchers the Sox have acquired ever going to be as good as Chris Sale? or even Jose Quintana for that matter.
The timing for the Cubs acquisition of Lester was right, as was the timing of the Sox trades of Sale and Quintana. The single difference in the Cubs rebuild was that they traded away decent, yet bit piece pitchers, to acquire players. The Sox traded their best two players away. I have a feeling that both strategies will work. The Cubs have proven it and there is nothing to deny that the Sox are trending in the absolute right direction.
Heyward has always been one of those all hype players fans and GM’s seem to fall in love with. BJ Upton before him and am thinking JBJ when he hits FA will be another afterwards.
Why fans and GM’s love these good glove, good arm, sometimes good with the bat and potential 5 tool guys? i really don’t know. They never do put it all together for stretches, yet both fans and GM’s seem to drool over them and eventually throw mega millions down the drain chasing them.
He helped them win the World Series. All that matters
Yes and he is young enough to bounce back
Mike, you seem to be one of those casual Cubs fans I mentioned. A large chunk of Scherzer’s deal is deferred out until 2028. He was the top pitcher available, and still is the top pitcher in baseball. As for Heyward, he’s a good defensive RF, but his hitting has always been marginal. Players don’t get nine-figure contracts to catch fly balls in RF, they get paid to hit. As for Chris Sale and Quintana go, what is your point? The Sox are rebuilding the farm system and big league roster, something you should be familiar with considering the Cubs did the same thing. The Pale Hose are doing a fantastic job of acquiring young talent so far. I’m confident they’ll find new stars to carry the team, and know we’ll be kicking your tail at Wrigley sooner than you think.
Amen. As much as I hate that contract, maybe they don’t win without his leadership during the rain delay.
I totally agree with your premise…and really not a casual Cubs fan. Yes, Scherzer is a top pitcher in baseball and better than Lester, but also cost almost $60 M more and will be paying for him another ten years. My only disagreement in your statement is that it is team friendly. $200 million over any period of time is player friendly.
I agree that the White Sox are doing a great job in the rebuild and because we’ve seen the Cubs and Astros win the World Series the past two seasons, the Sox appear to being repeating a plan that has worked. It will be fun to watch the kids mature and hopefully for Sox fans they can all come together at once and contend soon.
Unless things realign sooner than later I would caution you that the tail you need to be kicking is the Astros, Indians, and Yankees, not the Cubs. As the Sox are maturing, particularly the Astros and Yankees teams that are already here will be hitting their prime.
And finally my point on Sale and Quintana—and I know they had to give them up to get their haul, but Sale is a legit top 5 pitcher in baseball and Quintana is absolutely a solid 2 or 3 (you wouldn’t argue that he is one of the best 90 starters in baseball, would you?). After watching the Astros and really the Cubs, the Sox could be that time in two years. In two years I expect Sale to still be a top 5 pitcher and Quintana a near the top of the rotation guy. There is hope that Kopech or someone else becomes that, but if not then the Sox have to grab that Lester or in your scenario, Scherzer to round off that team
I think we agree on the premise, just stated a little different. Make sense?
Cards didn’t offer more money! The opt-outs he got from the Cubs make the contract bigger!
If you recall, the Cubs were lousy in 2014. They were lucky to find any ace-type pitcher to believe in their vision. It didn’t hurt that Lester already had a relationship with Theo/Hoyer.
I also recall Lester taking less money to join the Cubs. If the owner tells you to spend what you need to win, why is the Cubs’ front office still so tight with getting elite players? There are a bunch of much better players the Cubs could have signed but chose not too because they have an annoying reluctance to pay market rate for top free agents.
175 mil, plus private jet hours does not frankly equal “lucky” to get Lester. If you recall the year before joining the Cubs Lester was trending downward badly in the AL (especially with A’s). Think Lester knew he needed to switch over to NL plus he knew Theo would spend huge money to compile a good team (along with drafting well). Boston was 2nd or 3rd in overall payroll the years they won with Theo. I remember how fun it was seeing Theo & Madden try to hide and defend Lester’s inability to hold runners or throw to bases too. So yeah it’s not even close between Scherzer & Lester.
Anyone honestly think Garciaparra, Schilling, Ramirez, Ortiz and others weren’t on PEDs with BoSox too?
Ok–on this one, I am missing your point. From one side of the mouth you say they over pay and get stuck (Heyward) and on the other side you say they are tight. What elite players are you talking about in the past three-four years? Was there a need? What elite player, in a position of need, did they not get? If they get none of the Kershaw, Harper, Machado, Donaldson, Kimbrel, etc etc etc class next year come back.
Since most of your responses tend to come from a Sox fan’s point of view against the Cubs, why haven’t the Sox signed any of these players? Why haven’t they traded for all top 20 prospects?
In relation to the real baseball world, Theo and Jed have made very few mistakes in the past six-seven years. There have been a few, but mostly their decisions have worked out quite well.
Ok, let’s start with players that have been on your roster. Davis and Chapman are elite closers who the Cubs let walk. Chapman’s situation was worse, since they traded their top prospect for a four month rental. I won’t get into hypotheticals about FAs, but use your imagination. They “kick a lot of tires,” but at the end of the day, the Cubs don’t put their money where their mouth is. Heyward is far from elite, which goes into my whole point.
Ok. They won the World Series trading that prospect. As for Davis and Chapman, it’s obviously not Theo’s MO to spend a ton of money on a closer that will demand a long contract. The Cubs have been to the last three NLCS with three different closers. The Giants won three world series in a five year span with three different closers. Heck, in 2005 wasn’t the Sox closer someone they picked off waivers the year before and didn’t even pitch until mid season? How did the Astros closer do in the World Series this year? Plain and simple, the Cubs won’t go long term on that type of guy.
How has that philosophy worked out so far? Yeah, they won the World Series thanks to Aroldis Chapman. He’s gone, and the Cubs still don’t have a closer. You need a dominant closer to get to the WS and win it. You’re delusional if you think otherwise. I do like what the Cubs have done so far this year. Getting Lackey and Rondon far away from Chicago is a substantial improvement slone. Morrow and Cishek as setup men should give them tremendous depth in late innings. However, that goes out the window if they don’t grab an experienced top-tier closer. I hate the idea of any team wasting a great roster on a weak bullpen.
In 2010, the Texas Rangers had a payroll of $56M. That same year they signed a tv contract worth $80M annually. In 2014, the Rangers signed naming rights to their ballpark. I’m not sure how much they get for the naming rights but it’s likely several million per year. With both the tv deal and naming rights the Rangers added around $83M annually to their income. During the WS run, ticket prices also went up. Next year the Rangers will have a payroll around $145M, assuming they don’t sign anymore top free agents. Do all the math and the huge uptick in payroll, over the last 7 years, equates to the extra sources of revenue.
One day I’m going read in MLBTR a report of an owner saying “Collusion? Nah. I mean, we do discuss player salaries and bidding strategies along with best practices for getting the taxpayer to pay for our stadiums, but we are competitors here–we would never collude–that would be wrong”.
I can totally see owners throwing cash around to other owners to back off certain FAs or cut one-sided trades (Yankees). I have no proof, just my instincts. As I get older, I’ve come to realize professional sports is just a poker game for the super rich.
The most over used and hysterical word of our time–collusion.
Get em Mueller!!
Is Yadi a HOFer? If he plays close to what he has his entire career over the next 3 seasons he would largely be getting in on his defense. Just curious because I think he is but I would also put Andrew Jones and Omar Vizquel in.
imo, Yadi is easily a hall of famer. He’s one of the best defensive catchers to play the game (8 gold gloves, 4 platinum gloves, career 41% of runners caught stealing on him, 125 career defensive runs saved). Though Molina isn’t a Mike Piazza, or Yogi Berra offensively, his offense isn’t that bad either (career 284 average, currently 18th all time in hits as a catcher).
Molina is not a hall of famer. Career 97 OPS plus, only 35.4 WAR (Posey, for example, has 135 OPS plus and more WAR, 37.5, in over 2200 less plate appearances).
If you want to put a Cardinal catcher in the HoF look no further than Ted Simmons.
As a Cards fan I would not put him in the HOF. I would definitely put Simmons in over Yadi. Yadi still has some work to do to get in.
It will be a sad day for the Cardinals when he does retire, he means SOOO much to this team and its fanbase, I will cherish these last few years the Cardinals have with him