Some items from around the Senior Circuit…
- The Marlins had some interest in free agent second baseman DJ LeMahieu, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (via Twitter), though talks “never got close” between the two sides. It’s surprising to see the rebuilding Marlins make a play in any sort of veteran this offseason, though as Rosenthal puts it, Miami saw LeMahieu as an “undervalued asset at potential below-market price.” While it took until early January for LeMahieu to land his two-year, $24MM deal from the Yankees, the second baseman still had a pretty robust market, with multiple teams (including the Giants, Nationals, Dodgers, and Athletics) showing interest in his services. It stands to reason that several others at least checked in, as the Yankees hadn’t been linked to LeMahieu before their deal was announced and Miami was certainly off the radar as a potential candidate. LeMahieu’s $24MM total also topped MLBTR’s prediction of a two-year, $18MM contract for the free agent second baseman, so it’s fair to assume that his market never dropped to the point that the Marlins could’ve made a play.
- Keeping with the Marlins, right-hander Dan Straily remains “high atop the team’s trade list,” the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo writes. Straily drew quite a bit of trade attention last winter but his stock dropped after a forearm injury limited him to just 122 1/3 IP in 2018, and some rough advanced metric numbers. Straily’s .350 xwOBA was well above his .324 wOBA, and ERA indicators (5.11 FIP, 4.99 xFIP, 4.92 SIERA) paint a lesser picture of his 4.12 ERA. This could make it hard for the Marlins to get their desired “nice return” for the righty, as Cafardo describes it, though he suggests that Miami could get more offers on Straily after other pitching targets in free agency or the trade market come off the board. Straily is controllable for the next two years and isn’t very expensive, as he and the Marlins recently agreed to a $5MM contract for 2019 to avoid arbitration.
- Also from Cafardo, he hears from Dodgers southpaw Rich Hill that the veteran hurler “absolutely” plans to continue his career into the 2020 season. Hill is entering the final season of his three-year, $48MM deal with the Dodgers, and it seemed logical to wonder if Hill could be considering retirement, given that he turns 39 in March and has dealt with a number of injuries throughout his career. That said, it also isn’t surprising that Hill wants to keep going in the wake of his late-career revival, as the southpaw has a 2.98 ERA, 10.6 K/9, and 3.76 K/BB rate over 407 2/3 IP in 2015-18. If Hill manages can duplicate his performance in 2019, it certainly seems like he’ll be able to land another contract (if a short-term deal) from a contending team. “There’s a lot more left in the tank. I want that ring,” Hill said, in reference to the Dodgers’ close calls in the World Series in each of the last two seasons.
You ain’t gonna get that ring with the dodgers hahaha
Next season baby!! We getting it
I like the optimism but with the moves or lack there of that we have done i doubt getting there again will be easy
The masterplan for this year is to not pay any CBT, just as it was last year. If Friedman does that, he will pat himself on the back and declare victory, same as last year. Where the team finishes doesn’t matter half as much as that. So long as they keep selling those tickets and can keep raising those ticket prices, the plan is a huge success.
I don’t want to believe this, but acquiring Martin who will count 0 towards the CBT is not encouraging.
What BlueSkyLA is saying is very much reality. Friedman’s MO is never to mortgage the future, even with a big market powerhouse. Stan Kasten also runs a franchise that way, looking back to his sustained success with the Braves in the 90s. Winning a WS will always be a sideshow, maintaining a perennial contending cash cow is the goal.
There was an article in Forbes not long ago which referenced a lawsuit against a bank that provided roughly $1Bil of the Dodgers purchase money, but that obviously isn’t very liquid being a portion of an MLB team. The Dodgers’ finances are not as strong as everyone on here assumes.
You read one article about a possible fraud and now the Dodgers all of the sudden don’t have the highest attendance, huge TV deal, and a brand that is worth at least $500 million itself.
It goes beyond not mortgaging the future, it’s really about maximizing profits. Friedman is managing the Dodgers more like a small-market low-revenue team than the big market, high revenue team they are in reality. Worse yet, he’s treating the 30-year championship drought as at most a side-issue. Ending it is simply not a priority. We all have to know that now. Those marching orders come from ownership, no doubt, so whether it was Friedman or someone else implementing that plan, it would still be the plan.
I was here last year saying the very same thing, about how Friedman’s number one goal was to avoid paying the CBT, and everything else was secondary. Lots told me how wrong I was, that Friedman had a plan for winning that was just too subtle for me to understand. Yeah, right. Now that we are seeing a repeat performance I hope we won’t have to have another debate about the obvious.
BlueSkyLA, your blind agenda has gotten to the point where it’s ridiculous. I’m starting to wonder whether you even enjoy being a fan anymore – because everything you have to say, is depressing.
In case you hadn’t noticed, LA has been right on the door two years straight. They were a couple of tipped pitches away from ending it against Houston, and they ran into a Boston team that put up a statistically historical world series. They are right there on the edge, and you’re sitting here talking like they don’t even care about being there.
Get your pessimism in check – because all I see is someone who is incapable of acknowledging anything that doesn’t feed his own doubts.
It hurts to lose. I hate LA being so close and not closing the deal. But for the love of God, get off your dismal high horse. Freidman and Co have gotten us closer than we have been in a long, long time – and at this point, it seems like that’s in spite of your wishes.
On a side note – I would pay to see you say half of the things you spout on here, to the guys in that Organization who bust their rears every single day to win. You wouldn’t – because it’s a gutless opinion from someone who wants to find reasons to be bitter.
My blind agenda is winning a World Series. So ridiculous. Shame on me.
I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that you and some others who seem to think that nasty personal attacks are a valid form of debate is one of the reasons I spend so little time here any more. Probably you will consider that to be a personal victory.
On a side note, I’ve daydreamed about meeting Andrew Friedman or Stan Kasten or Magic Johnson at Dodger Stadium some day and letting them know how I feel about their plan. Me and about a million other Dodger fans, from the ones I talk to outside of this forum. But I know that will never happen because none of them ever show up at Dodger Stadium. They love us that much.
You think a WS title is not one of Friedman’s main (if not THE MAIN) priorities?
Like, seriously…WTF? lol
Have you stopped to consider for a moment, that your constant undermining of Freidman and Co, and the constant spreading of malicious, unsubstantiated garbage, is a personal attack in itself? You literally sit there and try and drill into people that Freidman doesn’t want to win a World Series, and that he doesn’t care about it – only the money – when you know absolutely nothing of the sorts. Speaking of these things as fact, is out of line.
I want the Dodgers to win the World Series too – but that’s not a license to spread mis-truths around like you do.
Won’t be another debate until you bring it up the next time someone makes the mistake of mentioning Friedman’s name. We have all played in this band before. You have great analytic abilities but you waste your time obsessing about Friedman.
Friedman has stated his goal is to make it to the play-offs every year. He said he views winning the WS as a crap shoot.. He also stated his goal is to stay under the luxury tax and continue to develop cheap young talent in the minors. So I think you are partially correct. I believe Friedman would love to win a WS. However he is not going to push all the chips into the pot to accomplish that. And obviously this is something the owners support. They are building value on their investment. Championships are a secondary consideration to the bottom line.
getting it? after they trades two offensive impacts and aquired nothing and same rotation???
keep dreaming…
I think la will be fine with Martin/Barnes,they fit the Mold of walk,HR,KO theme with Versatility buy the way if they don’t hit with well with Runners in Scoring Position again,they won’t win it again
Straily…bounce back.
What would he be bouncing back from? At this point he just is what is, a solid back of the rotation piece.
Yeah… as he really ever been that good??
DJ LeMahieu holds the unique distinction of having usually conservative Fangraphs — give him larger contract than you. That means he’s undervalued.
It was a joke. Poor attempt at humor.
Still, Peculiar, Fangraphs projected DJ to earn more. It’s usually the opposite! —90M seperates them and Harper
Poor attempt at sentence structure actually.
I was trying to figure out what he meant too, although it could be the NyQuil.
In you or in him?
Yanks over paid for lemaheiu. There is no way the Marlins were in on him. They have an expensive 2b already.
Wrong
Love Rich Hill!
Not
Yah I wouldn’t mind the Braves trying to get him as a rental at the All-star Break. Their will most likely be injuries to our rotation by then and Hill could lengthen a rotation and provide some good playoff experience.
Rich Hill has been awesome these past three years, how can you not like him? His life story is pretty interesting too.
Rich Hill has maybe the weirdest career numbers I’ve ever seen.
Dude knows how to pitch. When he’s on.. HE’S ON!
Yeah, basically when Hill was young he had that good season with the Cubs as a starter, pitched a lot of innings, and immediately got hurt. After that he bounced around, always pitching out of the ‘pen because teams just figured he couldn’t hold up to a starter’s workload (which, honestly, he can’t). In 2016 the A’s, using a lot of the advanced numbers on pitch types and data on Hill’s pitches and effectiveness, courtesy of newly emerging technology and the A’s superlative analytics department, signed him and just basically said “throw the curve. All the time. And we’ll manage your workload to keep your elbow intact.” And he did, and then they flipped him to the Dodgers for prospects, and the Dodgers followed the same formula – throw the curve all the time, we’ll get you out of games as early as possible. And it’s worked pretty well, in large part because Hill bought in and is very good, apparently, about communicating to the Dodgers about how he’s feeling at any given moment.
DJ appears to be hindered by the newfound importance of advance statistics. While his OBP isn’t usually great were talking about a guy that is a career .300 hitter with superb defense. When you think about what Dee Gordon got a few years ago this is most certainly a good deal for the Yankees. They also now have elite infield depth once Didi returns
DJ was hindered by his inability to hit outside Coors field in 2018. He’s generally never hit outside Coors except in 2017 for some reason. As was pointed out recently on Fangraphs, a very interesting thing about LeMahieu, and something the Yankees certainly noticed, is that his batted-ball profile is eerily similar to that of Derek Jeter. Perhaps they see that as something they can work with, and obviously Yankee Stadium is also a great hitter’s park.
Nice. Didn’t realize that. Thanks for pointing it out. Hopefully the success in Denver translates to NYC.
With the Phils, Braves, Nats, and Mets all making improvements, the Phils potentially signing Harper and/or Machado– and the Marlins almost certain to trade Realmuto by the deadline– Miami could lose 120 games this season! Why bother spending ANY money on veterans? Mind boggling.