In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams out west…
- The Texas Rangers have their sights laser-focused on Anthony Rendon, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Recent additions have more-or-less locked their rotation class, with Kolby Allard, Joe Palumbo and Brock Burke looking like the 5 through 7 options behind Lance Lynn, Mike Minor, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles. Should prices drop on starters like Dallas Keuchel or Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Rangers could add further pitching in the right deal and potentially explore flipping Lynn or Minor, tweets Grant, though that’s less a strategy and more of the “open to anything” ethos employed by most front offices. Otherwise, the group of internal candidates, if expanded, would include Taylor Hearn and Tyler Phillips, plus any vets they are able to grab on minor league deals in the mold of Edinson Volquez (though Volquez himself is more likely ticketed for the pen if he makes the team). The Rangers reportedly offered Zack Wheeler a $100MM contract before he signed with Philadelphia, so the pursestrings have been loosed. For now, however, they’re stuck in traffic waiting to see if the “Adrian Beltre treatment” can sell Rendon on playing the latter half of his career in Arlington.
- The Colorado Rockies need for starting pitching is clear, but they are highly unlikely to walk away from the winter meetings with a new arm atop their rotation, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Irrespective of the financial crunch – which is significant and detailed in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook – the history of Coors Field continues to scare away free agent pitchers. Not to mention, the haunted past of big-ticket hurlers signed by past regimes in Colorado is no less an impediment to building through free agency. Denny Neagle, Mike Hampton, and Darryl Kile can all profess their tale of woe, but Kile’s case is particularly damning given the success he enjoyed in St. Louis once freed from Coors. Speculatively speaking, the Rockies aversion/inability to add frontline pitching via free agency could be a factor in their bearish resistance to trading Jon Gray. If internal development is the only path to roster improvement, trading a talent like Gray would be an even greater white-flag move than under most circumstances.
You do realize that Darryl Kile can’t “profess his tale of woe” of free agency. His “particularly damning case” is not of going to St. Louis, but rather dying while with St. Louis. Respect for the man is warranted.
Chill out
I actually agree with him.
You chill out too
Don’t do drugs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not sure how drugs has anything to do with a heart attack caused by a 90% blockage in two coronary arteries.
Correct…it couldn’t have
Ignorant comment
It depends on what drugs if it affects the heart.
Umm reading compression or reading through might help. his case is damming given the success he enjoyed in St Louis after being freed from Coors. Seems pretty respectful and complimentary while also acknowledging his struggles in Coors.
Exactly. OP started something that shouldn’t have happened.
And by OP I mean Cmurphy
Yeah, I didn’t like the way he was included here either. He’s not referred to very respectfully of a dude who died way too young, suddenly, and tragically. I remember his death well, it was very sad.
I created an account just to say that you are a stunningly sad little white knight. Make sure your fedora does not go flying off as you wildly protest.
Go braves!
TC, I think the word you’re looking for is “loosened,” not “loosed.” Good Job, otherwise.
Loosed actually works quite well there. Check yo self, before you wreck yo self grammar police
So at least 4 teams offered Wheeler over 100 million. What are people thinking? I don’t see how he is worth that. Maybe 75 million over 5 years. I could see that. But 118 million? That’s just bonkers. I’d rather have Hamels at 1 year 18 million.
Me too, I rather have Hamels for 18 million. It’s insulting that the Phillies offered 9 million to Cole Hamels before he agreed to sign with Atlanta. Shame.
That’s the new baseball economy and why somebody like Cole might get $50+ per season
If a team couldn’t afford Cole or Stras, Wheeler was widely considered #3 at a much lower price. Much bigger market for Wheeler drove up the price. That’s the way the free market works. MadBum and Keuchel will probably get overpaid, too. We’ll see.
Free Freeland
It’s a shame. Denver is a great city, a great place to have a sports team. But the way baseballs travel there is just ridiculous. There’s no good solution.
Why bring up Colorado pitchers from the pre-humidor era? Today’s Coors Field is nothing like the early 2000s. No one could have been successful in Coors THEN, but it has been shown that pitching is not really that much worse than pitching in Texas, Philly, and Cincinnati since then. People are just using excuses from another era. The biggest problem is that Hampton and Neagle are the last starting pitcher free agents that the team has gone after.
Sure they have gotten relievers, but relievers are notoriously volatile, even the great ones. Once their confidence is gone, it’s not coming back. We need to see how a modern starting pitcher FA can fare before truly judging the situation.
Just use the five best pitchers. They don’t need to find guys who have success at Coors. The other team needs to pitch 9 innings there as well. If you have all guys pitching to 5 ERA’s in that ballpark, just make sure you make sure the other team does as well.
I can see why the Rockies are reluctant to pull the plug and rebuild. They just extended Arenado and he and Story are arguably the best left-side of an infield in baseball with respect to Oakland & Boston. If Kyle Freeland pitches like he did in 2018 and Wade Davis, Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw all pitch like they are capable of then they could have a decent pitching staff. They would need Ryan McMahon & Brendan Rodgers to take a step forward in their development and if Ian Desmond could contribute numbers closer to his career averages they could be good. That’s a lot of “if’s” but they were a playoff team with essentially the same roster just 2 years ago. They could add Michael Wacha, a true CF to spell Ian Desmond in the later innings like Billy Hamilton and maybe a couple rebound candidates like Gausman and Walker to compete for the 5th starter gig and a couple of bullpen arms like Greg Holland and Tyler Clippard on low risk guarantee’s to round out the bullpen and make another run at a wild card spot. if it doesn’t work out they still have some tradable assets in Gray, Story and Blackmon