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.
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.