Let’s take a quick look around the American League…
- Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor is a prominent trade candidate, at least speculatively. However, as you’d expect, it’s going to be extremely difficult to pry the superstar out of Cleveland. The Indians would have to be “overwhelmed” by an offer in order to part with the 26-year-old four-time All-Star this offseason, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com writes. Lindor has just two years of control left and doesn’t seem likely to sign an extension, meaning there’s a case the Indians should strongly consider trading him before next season. However, the perennial contenders apparently want to see how they fare coming out of the gate next season before deciding Lindor’s future, Hoynes suggests. If that’s the case, we may not see a Lindor trade until at least around next July’s trade deadline.
- Right-hander Zack Wheeler has become popular on the open market, but it doesn’t appear the longtime Met will be sticking in New York. Although the Yankees have shown interest in the hard-throwing Wheeler, they seemingly aren’t willing to hand him a nine-figure contract, Andy Martino of SNY tweets. Signs are pointing to the 29-year-old Wheeler landing a contract worth at least $100MM, so if the Yankees don’t want to go there, they’ll likely have to look elsewhere for starting help.
- Righty Matt Wisler, whom the Twins claimed off waivers from the Mariners in October, will make just over $700K in 2020, per Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. That looks like a rather team-friendly amount for the out-of-options Wisler, who had been projected to earn $1MM next season. The 27-year-old Wisler, a former top prospect, divided last season between Seattle and San Diego and logged a 5.61 ERA/4.23 FIP with outstanding strikeout and walk rates of 11.05 and 2.81 across 51 1/3 innings.
This makes sense to me. Wheeler is good, but he’s not great. A 5-year deal at $20M per year seems to high for Wheeler. As a Yankee fan, I would let someone else pay that. Yanks have #2 types like this already. They need a #1 like Cole or Strasberg. Otherwise, they should use money for someone else or save it for another time.
Do #3/#4 pitchers deserve 20M+? That’s all I view him as, an oft-injured 3 or 4. Basically Jake Arietta who only got paid as much as he did bc the Phillies were desperate and needed to overpay players to say ‘we are done tanking bc we can’t draft for ish’.
@phillyballers: Those who are free agents deserve as much as the market will bear for their services. There is no set amount.
Wheeler will get 5/125 based off what he has already done, and will out perform most pitchers next year. The same fans that are saying he is overrated now will be saying their team should have signed him this off-season. There isn’t a rotation in MLB he wouldn’t make better.
Of course. I was only commenting on the part of the article that says the Yankees won’t go to a 9-figure offer for Wheeler.
Spot on comment
If the #3 pitcher is a number 2 then yes he deserves the money. Teams are using metrics more today than in the past to judge a pitchers performance.
Yes they need to save $$$ so they can lose again in the playoffs or sign stiffs like the last 3-5 years of CC and countless others. Maybe another quality contract like Giancarlo Stanton they should hold out for.
Stanton is going to have a big year you’ll be praising the signing then.
He better start having them, soon… it won’t be long before the contract becomes the second coming of ellsbury instead of arod
2.0.
One is better than the other, even if neither ended well.
Except the Yankees weren’t the ones that signed him…
The 2nd time they did after he opted out.
Until Stanton is healthy enough to get 600+ PAs a year, we’ll never know how good he’ll be.
Stanton and Judge are the same animal, 4 WAR – 8 WAR players. They need to stay healthy which has been their problem. If they can do that along with the pitchers like Sevy then they will be champions.
THANK YOU. the same crap happened in the 2000’s, when the ya is had highest payroll, however, only were the originating contractor 50% of the time.
Like you give Wheeler five years and nine figures and he doesn’t become a Stanton contract almost immediately.
Wonder if they kick themselves for passing on Corbin.
Not one bit. Passing on Corbin was the right decision
No man. He’s exactly what they need. It was not a good decision.
Financially, I’d have bigger regrets about missing Morton, or even Lynn, over Corbin.
Yankees suck
Yup.
Throat74 – So does your mom.
I can see some desperate team like the White Sox pushing this into Corbin-type money, but no matter what the final contract is I’ll wager it is an overpay
Whoever signs Wheeler is doing so on their estimation of future performance only. If he is the third best free agent pitcher available, based on his age, there is no reason why he won’t surpass the $100 mil mark given the number of teams in need of potential top of the rotation production for the next 5 year. Emphasis on potential
Era wise he had one bad season…he is a garret Cole in the making. He needs a better place to show it off.
Yankees should not sign any pitcher, save the money and go with their rotation as it is. They still win 100 games in 2020. Gives them flexibility as their younger players get more expensive.
*crickets*
Sure, win 100 games then lose in the first round of the playoffs. Sounds like a solid plan
Wheeler’s good for 5 years. Might even put up better nunbers over that period of time than Cole and Strasburg.
I can’t believe I’m feeding a troll. Sure, Wheeler might put up better numbers. Maybe Wheeler becomes an astronaut in year 4 of his contract. Maybe he pitches in Japan in 2023. But I cant see how anyone would predict the next 5 years of Wheeler to be better than that of Cole or Stras.
Wheeler has had his injury issues he’s also thrown alot less innings in his career. Perfect candidate on the rise. Everything points to him peaking the next few years.
You can’t see how that could happen? I’ll take a crack at that. Wheeler signs on with a team with the best offense in baseball, cole and stras do not. Wheeler also is that team’s #2 or #3 starter giving him better matchups than Cole or Stras. See where I’m going here. Wheeler is setup to have a breakout season and does just that posting better numbers.
I did not expect someone with the username “Moneyballer” to make an argument based on a pitcher’s win/lose total. Unless there’s some other pitching stat that is affected by their team’s offense and the opposing team’s pitcher.
Where do you deduce that? He’s never even thrown 200 innings, never won more than 12 games, has a history of arm problems, and is roughly the same age as the other two guys. It’s not like his arm is going to improve as he gets into his mid-thirties. He’s just Dallas Keuchel 2.0 to me, albeit more fragile. I wouldn’t touch Strasburg for that much either.
I’ve said it a million times – teams should never give a 5-year contract to a 30-year old pitcher. For every one time, it works there are at least five it doesn’t. The Yankess know this all too well.
Not only that, how many healthy seasons has Strasburg had? I wouldn’t touch him either at 32.
Cole is supposed to age like fine wine. The people on FanGraphs, stat cast, and a few MLB.com writers and The Athletic writers believe Cole will age similarly to Scherzer, Kershaw, and a few others. According to Strausburgs stats in the effectiveness of his fastball, change up, off speed, and other pitches, he should age very well too. If I was a GM, I would gladly give Cole and Strausburg 10-15 more AAV than Wheeler.
It’s like half of us have forgotten Strasburg’s history. He’s eclipsed 200 innings once in the last 5 years. Im all good w knocking Wheeler for his prior health issues. But guess which one of them has thrown more innings the past 2 seasons?
Cole is 29. Wheeler is 29. Stras 31.
Of the 3 I see cole as the best “risk” over 5 years, followed by stras, and finally wheeler (simply due to his injury history.)
Now, if you made a different arguement – “wheeler will cost less per war over the length of his next contract” then, I’d likely agree with you.
Not because wheeler is likely to outperform season to season, more because stras is too old to hand the 7-8yrs he’ll want, and it’s equally as likely that a 35/36/37 year old cole in his last year’s will give little value as it is wheeler will be injured and miss a year.
Truest statement on the board
False. They spelled argument wrong. Not a good argument, literally.
Strasburg’s own injury history is seldom brought up but when it comes to Wheeler is the first thing mentioned. Selective memory is an interesting thing…
Selective memory is an interesting thing… and it goes great with selective reality.
Let’s not get into politics.
Didn’t Wisler used to pitch for the Braves? He sucked back then and judging by his 5.61 ERA last season, not a lot has changed.
Yes, he will be paid $690k too much.
Cuz ERA is the only indication of pitching success. SMH. Bullpen guys pitch 50-60 innings total, literally one bad game – one bad INNING can balloon an era into the ugly zone. And once its there it could take that pitcher the rest of the YEAR to bring it down. Look at the full picture and you’ll see a guy who makes a lot of hitters miss the baseball as indicated by his double digit K/9 rate.
He also gave up 10 homers in those few innings. Oops
when will the yankees know if german will be let out of slap jail?
If the Yanks can’t sign Cole or Strasburg, they will be wishing they had signed Wheeler, who will be long gone by then.
Unbelievable how casual fans underrate Wheeler. Easily one of the top 30 Starters in baseball with the physical talent to be a CY Young Contender. A team that pays Wheeler is paying for the opportunity to unlock his potential and help him find consistency. The advanced metrics all paint the picture of an ascending guy that’s been beleaguered by poor Defense and will benefit from mixing up his repertoire.
Top 30? Wow you’re really going out on a limb there.
Gerrit leaves the Astro’s overpriced and Wheeler signs with the Astro’s underpriced.
Reclamation project number 3 for Houston.
No
Grienke was Cole’s replacement. Astros need the $$ to lock up their core.
Nats should be all in on Lindor they could switch Trea Turner to 2nd base.
They lack the needed top flight prospects to get a deal done.
The Matt Wisler contract can be quite a value next season. That K and BB per 9 ratios are worth far more than what he’s making. Reminds me of the M Perez signing last offseason. Twins got their money’s worth from Perez this past year, would not be surprised if Wisler provides a similar return this season.
Sounds like last year… yanks expect players to play for a discount. Players say why?
Also no long hair or beards. Go to oakland if you want to be a lumberjack!
How is it that players put up insane numbers on there walk year then sign the massive contract but produce meh numbers? Any team signing Cole is going to get just that
Indians and Brewers may match-up. Hader and Arcia for Lindor, Bradley and Moss. Could be a rare MLB talent for MLB talent swap.
Really? Why not throw Kluber and Clevinger too just to even it out?
Hader and Arcia will not get you Lindor let alone Lindor plus. Hader is very good, but you don’t trade a talent like Lindor for a reliever.
Your kidding, right? Elite closers are worth a ton, especially ones with 4 years of control.
Lindor is a Gold Glove shortstop and one of the top 5-10 players in MLB. That is much more valuable than a very good reliever.
Hader may be the best reliever in the game. Thats better then “very good”. Lindor finished 15th in AL MVP voting, hard to say if he’s a T10 player in the MLB. Arcia is also worth something. He’s struggled at the plate, but he’s still only 24 and was a T20 prospect not long ago.
Arcia is so good that the Brewers are trying very hard to replace him. Stop trying to overhype him.
I’m not overhyping him, just stating facts. Didn’t say he was worth a ton, but he has positive value.
If the Brewers wanted to get rid of him sooo bad, why didn’t the just non-tender him? Stearns has said they’re frustrated with his offensive production, but they obviously think he provides value if the offered him a contract
The Indians would not trade Lindor for Mariano Rivera in his prime. You just don’t trade a superstar, young SS for any reliever, period.
Otherwise, the Brewers’ farm has been pretty decimated the past two years – doubt there’s any way they could match up with CLE.
I do see a match though with either the Dodgers or Braves and two darkhorses: the Rays or Angels.
You’re not getting an Elite Shortstop for a great reliever and poor hitting shortstop.
That’s like asking if the Brewers would trade Christian Yelich for Brad Hand and Greg Allen
The Indians dont want/dont have the money to resign Lindor. He is gone after 2 years. That has to be taken into account when assessing his value.
Just stop. You are embarrassing yourself.
And they have a closer in Hand. Just because you want Lindor doesn’t mean you need to come on here and keep suggesting a Padre-homer style trade scenario that makes zero sense for the Tribe. This deal would cause their GM to laugh nonstop.
Yankees would have already signed Cole if daddy George were still around.
Yes and Manny Machado would have played 3B and Harper too last year.
Baseball has changed OK?
Get with it!
Yankees are the Evil Empire if they sign someone….and cheap and shortsighted if they don’t.
The guys they do sign will be a gross overpay. The ones they don’t will be a bargain.
There’s nothing like Hot Stove league…..
I think Wheeler is a big gamble similar to Homer Bailey. Great arm, limited success.
I don’t think they will lose in the first round of the playoffs! Houston won’t be there cheating! Lol!
I don’t understand why everyone is saying Wheeler won’t be worth it. At 20 mil per, he can easily be worth that type of deal. He has far less innings on his arm, and he is healthy now. Sure he was injured in the past. So were the vast majority of pitchers. Strasburg was injured before, but nobody brings that up.
For the cost it will take to acquire each player, Wheeler will provide the best overall value for the team that gets him.
Wheeler got much more than $20m per year
Wheeler has won 44 games in 7 MLB seasons.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5/$118M ????????????