A slew of high-profile free agents have fared better than expected on the open market this winter, which has been the quickest-paced offseason we’ve seen in a while. Left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, no doubt the most appealing unsigned starter remaining, could soon ink his own richer-than-anticipated contract. While MLBTR predicted a three-year, $54MM deal for Ryu when the offseason began, there’s now a belief across the industry that he’ll get at minimum a four-year pact worth better than $17MM per annum, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. On at least an annual basis, that type of accord would beat out the five-year, $85MM payday the Diamondbacks handed fellow lefty Madison Bumgarner on Sunday. Age (33 in March) and an extensive injury history could work against Ryu’s bid to cash in, but at the same time, there is no question he was one of the majors’ premier starters in 2019. The longtime Dodger fired 182 2/3 innings of 2.32 ERA/3.10 FIP ball with 8.03 K/9, 1.18 BB/9 and a 50.4 percent groundball rate. Ryu rode those numbers to a second-place finish the NL Cy Young balloting, and they could help him to a rich contract in the coming weeks.
- Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak indicated last week the team was still trying to re-sign outfielder Marcell Ozuna. That continues to be the case, according to The Athletic’s Mark Saxon, who tweets that St. Louis remains “engaged in trying to” re-up its most prominent free agent. However, it appears “unlikely” the Cardinals will succeed, Saxon observes. Ozuna’s coming off a pair of productive seasons as a Cardinal, which could aid him in securing a lucrative three- or four-year contract in St. Louis or elsewhere.
- The Twins are interested in Japanese righty Shun Yamaguchi, per Darren Wolfson of SKOR North. Teams have until Jan. 2 to negotiate with Yamaguchi, whom the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball posted Dec. 3. Yamaguchi was a starter and a reliever in Japan, so it’s unclear how the Twins will use the 32-year-old if they do sign him. It’s worth noting that even after retaining Jake Odorizzi and Michael Pineda in recent weeks, the reigning AL Central champions appear to have holes in their rotation.
- Earlier this offseason, playoff hero Howie Kendrick chose to re-sign with the Nationals on a one-year, $6.25MM guarantee. But it turns out the Rays, once the reported front-runners to sign Kendrick, actually outbid the Nationals. They offered the 36-year-old infielder more money and term than Washington gave him, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Kendrick could have been part of the first base/designated hitter mix for the Rays, who just added a potential solution for at least one of those spots in Japanese free agent Yoshitomo Tsutsugo.
The Rays did not outbid anyone. Lies. Those Tampa writers should have their credentials pulled once and for all.
Lol what
How do you know this
He doesn’t know. Some people just need to hear themselves .
It’s sarcasm folks. The Rays are cheap and rarely outbid anyone.
Not sarcasm, just dumb.
And you know this how Ejemp?
The average annual value must have been notably lower on Kendrick. Or, he might realize he has enough money and just want to play in. Spot he enjoys.
I’m happy to see him find a second home in the national league.
He’s etched himself into DC baseball history, I can see them resigning him to another deal after this year. Assuming his production doesn’t fall off too far.
Very easy guy to root for. I’m happy for him as well.
But what’s up with the hummingbird neck tattoo?
Ha ha. I have no idea.
lock 2 in, epp!
i know it wasn’t a japanese player, but didn’t the twins sign some (possibly??) korean DH in recent memory that was a total bust?
Byung-ho Park. Korean I believe
Tsuyoshi Nishioka? Japanese 2b bust.
Both of those players were huge busts for MN Twins
I’m sorry, but Yamaguchi isn’t “impact pitching.” At the very least sign Keuchel and Teheran…
Yamaguchi is much more of an impact pitcher than Teheran and they don’t need Keuchel when they’ve got Lewis Thorpe who’ll get more strikeouts and less walks albeit with some flyball tendencies.
Yamaguchi is almost a complete unknown. The track record for predicting foreign player performance in MLB is pretty poor. Teheran is not a good option. Keuchel is a much better pitcher than Thorpe, are you kidding me saying otherwise? Thorpe is BP/AAA fodder and an occasional spot start in a double header.
If the Cardinals want Ozuna, they will sign Ozuna. It is not that they will unlikely to sign him. He already said that he wanted to stay in St Louis and the Cardinals probably be the last bidder for him.
Braves need to either sign Donaldson or move on to Ozuna
Ugh… it’s looking like my nightmare scenario may end up playing out in which:
– Hyun-Jin Ryu (SP) re-ups with the Dodgers, maybe the Cardinals or worst yet — the Minnesota Twins.
– Marcell Ozuna (OF) won’t be joining us at Guaranteed Rate next season as a member of the Chicago White Sox. Sox fans want J.D. Martinez so bad that they’ve shunned the idea of Ozuna being a good signing for us because we’d force him into a role with Mazara where they can rotate between right field and DH. I’m well aware of his “defensive limitations” but he’s been a consistent producer who seems very steady but still has a high ceiling.
– Our back-up plans for those two are: Dallas Keuchel / Julio Teheran and Corey Dickerson / Kole Calhoun may not be in the cards for the White Sox either.
– We’ll Probably trade a stupid amount for David Price and it’ll be James Shields all over again.
Well this seems overly cynical
Yep. The obvious hatred/provincial attitudes of sportswriters, snobbishness from players and/or agents, and, in the case of the White Sox, the frugality, insincerity and obvious disdain for their own fanbase, continue to make free agency a disgusting system. Player movement in the MLB is almost as rigged and broken as the NBA. If teams that are forced to tank, like the Sox, don’t hit on most of their young talent, there’s no chance of them winning. The seasons sacrificed to accumulate and develop talent will have been a complete waste of time. In the end, the fans who fund all of this are the only real losers.
The Brewers used to be the same type of place that couldn’t get free agents to sign when Doug Melvin was GM. Funny thing is Stearns came in and changed the culture of the team and it seems like a place that can now attract free agents. MN was the same type of place a few years back, their new coach seems to be a step in the right direction.
Aramis Ramirez, Matt Garza and Nelson Cruz weren’t free agents when Melvin signed them? Melvin deserves more credit for the Brewers turnaround.
The White Sox problem is nobody wants to play in the South Side slums of Chicago. Armpit, USA.
The White Sox forced to tank.. what an absolute joke of a comment. Their owner is rich and cheap and stupid and loyal to failures. You would buy any narrative if you buy “forced to tank”. They’re in a division where no one is adding aggressively, it is basically being handed to them.
Remember a few years ago the Sox had *four* players appearing on top 50 player lists (Sale, Abreu, Eaton, Quintana) making a combined ~$25m and they were too cheap and incompetent to put a decent team or decent staff around them?
Got to watch a lot of Ozuna in St. Louis last season. When he gets in a groove, he’s a bit of a beast. He’s a very good hitter, not a true power threat. Doesn’t play outfield so well, better than big Matt Holliday. Plays hard.
Holliday is/was so much better than Ozuna. As a team/GM, Ozuna wouldn’t even be on my radar. Low baseball IQ. Lazy.
@ CFAP;
Agreed. And that makes him an AL player. He can just dig in and mash. Be a DH sometimes. 3-run HR’s excuse errors on the field and the basepaths. HR Derby all game, all the time.
It’s sort of odd that the Cardinals – whose TV announcer can’t get through 5 minutes of a games broadcast without mentioning “tradition” going back to Branch Rickey, inventor of “The Cardinals Way” – are so hot after a guy that (in the words of Sparky Anderson) “Plays Bat”.
Vandals- Cards aren’t hot after Ozuna. If they were, they’d have signed him to extension during the season when he said he wanted to resign. Also our TV announcers rarely mention Branch Rickey. Most people would say the father of the “Cardinal Way” is George Kissell.
George Kissell worked for and was trained by Branch Rickey.
We saw vastly different Ozunas the past two years. I’d rather have an outfield full of Matt Holliday-type leaders and men of character than a me-first Marcell Ozuna.
Triteon +1
Tampa would have flipped Kendrick before the end of his contract. WAS is less likely to do that. Had to be a part of his decision making process.
Pity my Phillies only have about $6 million to spend on a SP before they go over the luxury tax threshold ($208 million). Ryu or Keuchel would look real good joining a rotation that already has Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Jake Arrieta.
Not sure the $6 million GM Matt Klentak has left would even buy Julio Teheran for one year. So looks like we’re gonna be stuck hoping two out of the trio of Zach Eflin, Vince Velasquez or Nick Pivetta can ably fill out our #4 and #5 rotation slots.
Been there done that twice already with those three and the results have been lousy. Though I do think Zach Eflin figured out a few things late last season (Allowed three or fewer runs in six of his last seven starts.).
That’s a better problem to have than my Angels.
I don’t want to resign Ozuna. Cards should have traded for Mookie, signed Cole, kept Kelly and Weaver and looked at trading DeJong as part of a trade for Lindor.
Is that all?
Has anyone heard anything on Ryu suitors? Does anyone really care? lol
Everyone cares, it’s amazing how quiet it’s been.
I heard last week that Ryu Was never seriously in talks with Cardinals. Just Mo spin to the media so it could be relayed to fans that he was “trying”, only to reveal after Ryu signs somewhere we can hear Mo say, “we made a competitive offer”.
Are there a lot of more Korean/Japanese players posted this season than previously? It seems like there’s been much more.
C’mon Twins! Hurry up and sign Ryu or Keutchel… Lord (Kirby) knows we can’t have both. Please give us a lil somethin somethin!!!
Heard the one about the Italian, Puerto Rican, African and Asian? Lol..just kidding, I couldn’t resist!
As a Dodgers fan, how they haven’t resigned Ryu yet is beyond me. 3/$60M with a mutual option for a fourth at around $15M, who says no? He’s a fan favorite and a good pitcher. It needs to get done.
Too Slow, Twins Front Office. he already signed with the Blue Jays for $3 million a year for two years.