Some rumblings out of both the AL and NL West divisions…
- The Mariners and Diamondbacks discussed a potential trade earlier this week that would’ve sent Mike Leake to Arizona, though in the words of FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link), these negotiations “never got serious.” As we heard on Thursday, Leake was never contacted about the trade, which would’ve been a necessary step since Leake has a no-trade clause in his contract. Given that the M’s have shown a willingness to eat money in trades of their veteran players, Leake could have been (and perhaps even still is) a particularly attractive option to a D’Backs team that doesn’t have a ton of payroll room. In Leake’s case, Seattle would also be sharing the financial burden with the Cardinals. As per the terms of the trade that brought Leake to the Mariners from the Cardinals, St. Louis was responsible for $9MM of the $36MM owed to Leake over the 2019-20 seasons.
- In the words of one Padres official, there is still an “outside chance” that the club could ink 23rd-round draft pick Maurice Hampton, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes, despite Hampton’s commitment to play both baseball and football at LSU. Hampton reportedly wanted a $2.75MM bonus to begin his pro baseball career, and while the team believes this asking price may have dropped, it still represented a hefty enough demand that Hampton fell to the 23rd round despite a consensus top-50 prospect ranking in the eyes of draft evaluators. Since Hampton was taken beyond the top ten rounds, any contract he signs worth more than $100K would see that excess money subtracted from San Diego’s $10,758,900 draft pool, leaving the Padres with less money to sign their other picks. However, the team has been trying to create extra financial space within their pool — the Padres took four college seniors (who have less negotiating leverage) with their picks in the seventh thru tenth rounds, and saved almost $543K when sixth overall pick CJ Abrams agreed to a below-slot bonus.
- Yordan Alvarez enjoyed a dream debut in the majors today, going 1-for-3 with a walk and his first MLB home run, a two-run blast that proved to be the winning score in Houston’s 4-0 win over Baltimore. The young Astros slugger is considered one of the game’s most promising young bats, though there is far from a consensus on his overall value as a prospect, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes (subscription required). Alvarez is largely seen as a bat-only player, with limited defensive value as a left fielder or first baseman despite some solid athleticism for a man of his size (6’5″, 225 pounds). “Any projection of Alvarez’s future value will take a hit by an evaluator who doesn’t believe he can stick in left,” Kaplan writes, and he speaks to several writers from sites such as Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, and MLB.com about why Alvarez received a pretty wide range of rankings.
If all Alvarez does is hit, might as well give Houston the pennant now. DH has been a weakness for them since they came into the league. They are a solid, deep team.
That’s what I was thinking. I realize Astros value positional versatility, but just stick him at DH and Brantley can be the primary LF. Maybe that’s just the playoff, set lineup. I find it hard to believe he can’t play the field even if it’s below avg if his bat can carry him. Is he incapable of figuring out 1b?
Exactly. I think projections sometimes over-protect players from playing defense. There’s no way he’s not going to be playing on the field Atleast 50% of the time. If it were the National League, he’d be skipping around in left field every day just like Josh Naylor with the Padres.
* beginning this year the threshold for rounds 11-40 went up from the $100k you cite to $125K.
With the next CBA, they need to do something about these signing bonuses. The whole drafting college seniors and lowballing them in order to sign someone you draft later, just seems really sleazy to me. I understand why it is done and that it is currently within the rules, but it doesn’t pass the smell test to me. If I got drafted in the 7th round and then find out a 23rd round pick signed for MUCH more money than me, I would be a more than a little ticked. I just think that if there are slot values, then that is what players should get. If a team doesn’t want to pay that much for them, then either don’t draft them or try to draft them later. Or if they want to pay less and the player agrees, then they should forfeit the remainder of the pool money. Teams shouldn’t be rewarded for paying people less than they deserve. The whole thing just seems way too calculating and just plain wrong.
Less than they deserve? Not one of these players have proven anything. They deserve what their agent can negotiate. This is a business. If you have a job and find out the guy hired the same day as you is making five dollars more than you. That’s on you. You should have done one of two things. 1) asked for more money. 2) not worried about what others are getting paid. Because frankly. It’s none of your business.
Not one of these players has proven anything…including the high school players making millions in bonus money.
“If you have a job and find out the guy hired the same day as you is making five dollars more than you.” Then you have a right to go to a competitor and get another offer. These college seniors do not have that option. They don’t have any other avenue unlike others.
“It’s none of your business.” When salaries and signing bonuses are made public knowledge by companies, it becomes EVERYONE’S business. Everyone with the ability to access MLB.com knows exactly how much money players have signed for. I agree that if the info was kept silent that it would be no one’s concern and no one would probably care. But the information is out there.
The mlb draft is so drastically different than any other draft it’s intricacies are fascinating. In a roundabout way they are making more than they would in taking less than slot value. Most have predarft agreements so there is no surprise. Being drafted that high carries more of a commitment than in the later rounds. I think the sleazy aspect of the draft is teams, who have never scouted or seen guys, that draft players to block them from other teams, and don’t negotiate in good faith.
You would be taking away the bargaining power of more talented High School talent so that organisational filler from the college ranks can get a bigger bonus. This would hurt the talent level in the minor leagues and push back the free agency of players supressing salaries for drafted players.
Yordon Alvarez is from Cuba. Yuli Gurriel is from Cuba. Let Yuli teach him how to play 1B. With his height he should have a great reach.
Not sure what nationality has to do with ability to teach/learn a defensive position. Native language maybe, but that’s not exclusive to Cuba.
Minute Maid Park (Astros home field) is absolutely the easiest left field in the league with their short porch, almost non-existent foul space, and nice big wall, as evidenced by Carlos Lee’s ability to play there at an acceptable-but-not-quite-respectable level into his later years. Alvarez has more than enough athleticism to play adequate enough defense there. Honestly, this shouldn’t even be an issue given the offensive potential he brings to the lineup. Again, much like Lee, all you need is for him to not cost you games out there, and at MMP, that is a very attainable goal.
I’d say Fenway is much easier. Fenway doesn’t have that cutout like Minute Maid does to the right of the Crawford Boxes. That can be tricky.
Yeah but the thing about the cutout is that it almost never factors into a LF being able to make a play. Maybe an elite defender makes a couple plays, but more often than not it’s just playing the ball of the wall and even then it’s usually CF who does that.
True – but I think he’s right that Fenway is probably an easier left field. Minute Maid is definitely up there though and I’d agree with everything else you said about Alvarez being able to field there. So, he’s a DH everywhere but home and Fenway:)
Lol. Factored in last night.