Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sits atop Baseball America’s annual preseason edition of its Top 100 Prospect rankings. Guerrero had already moved into the #1 position in BA’s midseason rankings last summer after Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna (the top two players in last spring’s top 100) gained enough big league playing time to lose their prospect status. Guerrero is expected to make his long-awaited debut in the Blue Jays’ lineup at some point early in the 2019 season. Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Wander Franco, and Forrest Whitley round out the top five.
Here’s more from around the baseball world…
- Before signing a one-year deal with the Brewers worth $18.25MM in guaranteed money, Yasmani Grandal received multi-year offers from the Angels, Twins, and White Sox, The Athletic’s Robert Murray reports (subscription required). These offers were in addition to the four-year deal reportedly floated by the Mets for Grandal, which he turned down. As Grandal explained, taking the longer-term offers would’ve meant setting what he felt was a bad precedent for free agent catching contracts. “One of my responsibilities as a player is also to respect the guys going through this process before me like Brian McCann, Russell Martin, Yadier Molina…These are guys who have established a market and pay levels for a particular tier of catchers like myself,” Grandal said. “I felt l would be doing a disservice taking some of the deals that were offered even though they were slightly more long term. I wanted to keep the line moving and set a bar for the younger guys coming up. In hopes of them following our footsteps….hopefully, they know what they are worth and would go ahead and get paid what they’re worth.” Grandal can technically achieve a second year on his Brewers deal, a mutual option for 2020 worth $16MM, though it seems unlikely that both he and the team would agree to enact their respective sides of that option.
- The Twins’ offer to Grandal was worth around $13MM per season, 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson tweets, though talks between the two parties “never gained traction.” To use Grandal’s cited examples, $13MM is less in average annual value than McCann, Martin, and Molina each received in long-term deals from the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Cardinals, respectively. (In fact, Molina averaged more than $13MM per year in each of his last two extensions with St. Louis.) While time will tell if Grandal made the right move in turning down more long-term security, he clearly feels comfortable in betting on himself for a big 2019 season, while still picking up a nice one-year payday on a contending team. The Twins’ pursuit of Grandal is interesting in light of recent comments from Derek Falvey and Thad Levine about the team’s rather conservative approach to spending this offseason, though obviously Minnesota (like any club) would be interested in larger multi-year deals if it felt it was getting something of a below-market price.
- Athletics GM David Forst suggests that the door is still open to a long-term deal with slugger Khris Davis after the sides lined up on a 2019 contract for his final season of arbitration eligibility. As Forst told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle and other reporters, the two sides have “continued that conversation” and could keep negotiating after Opening Day, if Davis is willing. It had seemed possible that the need to hammer out an arb figure would drive talks, but with that already settled (at a hefty $16.5MM), any future-oriented agreement will simply have to reflect a difficult valuation case. Davis is one of the game’s power bats, of course, but he’ll also be 32 on Opening Day 2020 and he doesn’t add value with the glove.
Khrush Davis is one of my fantasy keepers. Sign him to an extension now, A’s!
Nobody cares
Your username would seem to disagree.
You’re the kind of guy, when playing slow pitch softball, wears 69.
No that’s me
No chance in hell
haha, how noble Yasmani! we all know you turned down the mets because you are a fool.
I’d rather play 1 year for that many millions for the Brewers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin than the Mets in New York for 4 years. The Dodgers don’t seem much better than the previous two years while the Brewers are their biggest threat to a third consecutive pennant.
Grandal is one of the most overrated players in MLB. It won’t be long before Brewers fans will start to want him gone. Unless he starts taking steroids again, which those fans are clearly supportive of…
Wow
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
They should use their neighbors bathrooms too
So you’d rather get 3 mil extra for just one year instead 15 mil each year for 4 years? I wonder who really lost this deal..
He probably believes that he’ll play for the Brewers for the year, and then get a nice fat 5 year deal at $20M+ annually next offseason.
I think it’s very realistic Grandal can top a 3/42 contract next year, with no QO attached. Sure, there is a lot of risk if he has major injury, but he’s making enough money this year and already has in his career where he’d be fine rest of his life if his career ended after this season. So why not take a chance at maximizing his earnings? Especially if he’s playing in a place where he’d rather play. That’s not a knock on NY, I just don’t know what Grandal’s preference is besides money. I also think Mets will have a solid team, but they also have 3 teams that I think are better in same division. Not that Brewers have it easy with Cubs or Cardinals (Reds might even be solid) but I still think Brewers have a better chance than Mets.
If a player hasn’t really made much money in their career, then if I’m in their shoes I’m taking a solid and life changing offer that I like. If I’ve already made tens of millions of dollars, I’d be much more comfortable fighting for terms I really like.
Your well thought out and articulated reply, is like a needle in a haystack.
brewers won’t win a Pennett this year – the central is going to beat each other up so bad that they will be lucky to make the play in game .
Pennant
Perhaps you should pay attention to the Mets offseason moves.
……or just pay attention!
The Mets confirmed that they never even made an offer. The FO and Grandal simply talked about what Grandal was seeking. It was probably Grandal’s agent that floated the 4/60 offer.
His career line is good but its the inconsistency season to season with Grandal that makes me nervous. But if he has a good year, maybe he gets 3/60 offer which would push his 4 year aav close to 20 per. Not bad, hope it works out for him.
Playing the year with a short deck in RF at Miller Park should help inflate his offensive numbers. For those who think we brewer fans will not like him only need to look at how poor the position has been since we traded Lucroy away (which didn’t end up so bad for us so far)
You mean the Twins offered substantially less than everyone else, head scratcher? Then he went on to sign with the mid market team next door who actually tries to win?
A’s Kris Davis will be at his prime at 32. Age is so overrated.
I don’t know why he compared his contract stuff to Yadi – STL was going to pay Yadi whatever he wanted because he has been a fantastic catcher WHILE also being a lifetime Cardinal that the fans love.
Grandal is a clown for not taking a long term deal while trying to sound like a saint.
A clown? Really? Who are you to say?
He rejected a 4 year offer for top money early – he was arrogant and turned it down …. only to sign for a one year deal, while claiming that people should follow him into the land of stupidity … players now days should take their money/extensions early because teams are not going to wait on them.
It’s not like he’s going to be living check to check. I’m guessing he will survive. Not bad for a “clown”. I’d be willing to wager every one of us would be happy to take that kind of money.
If he’s okay with what he’s getting then let it be. It’s not like it has any effect on our lives.
I’m not saying anything different . I’m saying he’s a fool for gambling his ego against the market – then when he lost his gamble, to try and convince others to stand up to a “flawed” system …
And by flawed, I mean teams that are getting smarter and not spending all their money on two or three players over a long period of time
Twins need to sign Marwin G. God only knows who will be the 1st to tank or get hurt or suspended between Sano/Buxton/Kepler/Polanco. He plays multiple positions well , decent hitter and in his prime. Makes way too much sense so it will never happen. Why are we just handing the division to the Indians. It wouldn’t have to break the bank to make this a good race.
Well done Grandal. You’re a front runner for Idiot of the Year.
Yeah, what an idiot. Making almost 20 million on a contender. What was he thinking.
White Sox are shooting for all the bronze medals they can get this offseason.
I’m confused. How is taking a one year deal better than taking a 4 year deal for a little less per year?
At his age and being a catcher I would’ve taken the 4 year deal but I guess we’ll find out in a year if he made a good decision.
What Yasmani really means is “show me the money I deserve!”
Probably, but in the real world, no sports figure “deserves” anything near what these guys get paid (except for Trout of course). I think I would take the 4/13 over the 1/18.5, instead of doing it all over again next winter. Injuries, bad numbers, etc. in 2019 can ruin his AAV for 2020 and beyond.
Correction: 18.25m.
Do you know the odds on a player (Davis) hitting .247 four years in a row? Astronomical.
He should buy a Powerball ticket…..
BS on Grandal’s comments. That was said to save face for turning down at least 1 wonderful deal. He shouldn’t worry about setting any bad precedent at the catcher position with a contract mutually agreed upon.
If he’s concerned about setting a wrong precedent over his own well being, then he’s the first ever in any sport. Unless I misunderstood his explanation.
Grandal’s agent telling him what to say to spin it. Taking the highest single year offer is what he did after failing to get what he thought he would. He can go blow out his knee this season. No way a catcher leaves that much on the table out of principle. What a joke and a lie.
clubs look for catchers with smarts grandal…good luck explaining this idiot move followed by even more idiotic comments.
he acts like there’s some kind of catcher rights movement for crying out loud. they offered you what they thought you were worth…period.
I’m very disappointed the Angels offered him a contract and I’m glad he didn’t accept.
I wouldn’t want to root for a known cheater.