It’s now official: MLB rosters are frozen. We won’t see any players coming and going for some times. And it’s unlikely that any new long-term extensions will be announced. But that doesn’t mean such deals won’t be explored. Some may already have advanced nearly to completion before the global pandemic intervened.
While we may have to wait to learn who the targets are and see what deals get done, there’s a silver lining: more time for rampant speculation! Okay, we’re not going to speculate here; rather, we’ll tick through some interesting possibilities on paper. Remember, we’ve seen an increasing prevalence of deals with less-experienced players (even some without any MLB service) and with new player types (early-career relievers and utilitymen).
In the present MLB environment, value is king and the old forms are fading. We’ve already checked in on the NL East, NL Central, NL West, AL East, and AL West. To round things out, here are some possible extension candidates from the AL Central …
Indians
Francisco Lindor is the big story. Unfortunately, that ship seems to have sailed: he informed the team he’d like to halt talks since the sides weren’t making progress. Unless there’s a change of heart and another attempt during the current pause, Lindor is not going to sign onto a long-term deal (at least, before he has reached his final season of arbitration eligibility later in 2020).
There are a few other interesting candidates. Top hurlers Mike Clevinger and Brad Hand would be of interest, but the Cleveland org may not be able to afford these high-end veterans. Perhaps a few others would be more achievable targets for the cost-efficient Indians. Outfielder Oscar Mercado has only 139 days of service under his belt, meaning he’s two full seasons away from likely Super Two arbitration qualification. Young starters Shane Bieber and Adam Plutko are each in the 1+ service class, so they shouldn’t cost all that much and could convey significant upside.
Royals
There are certainly some interesting questions for the K.C. organization to consider. Slugger Jorge Soler had an eye-popping 2019 … but is he going to keep it going and should the team lock into a player who profiles best as a DH? And how about exciting young shortstop Adalberto Mondesi? There’s no real limit to his ceiling but he had some struggles last year and is still working back from a shoulder injury.
The situation is equally uncertain on the pitching side. Righty Brad Keller has had success through two full MLB seasons but isn’t exactly a top-of-the-rotation arm. You could perhaps make a case for relievers Scott Barlow and Tim Hill, though there doesn’t seem to be a pressing reason to push for a deal with either.
Tigers
The Detroit MLB roster turned in a roundly awful 2019 season. But it still has a few potential targets. The versatile Niko Goodrum could be a part of quite a few rosters around the game, though there’s no particular need to lock into him for the long haul. There are more interesting candidates on the pitching side: starter Matthew Boyd and reliever Joe Jimenez. The former has a whole lot of upside and three more seasons of team control remaining; perhaps the club could take a bit of a gamble. As for Jimenez, 2020 is something of a boom or bust year — rack up a lot of saves and he’ll get a big first-time arbitration payday; stumble and he may not do very well at all. Perhaps he and the club could take share the risk over a longer term.
It’s probably a bit too soon to consider the top of the farm system for deals. But this time next winter, the Tigers could have a host of interesting candidates.
Twins
Both of last winter’s extensions turned out well; the team struck again more recently with Miguel Sano. Perhaps the most obvious remaining candidate is quality young righty Jose Berrios, who is entering his first season of arbitration eligibility. Now that he’s in line for bigger money, it’ll cost more to do a deal. The sides have struck out in previous talks. Byron Buxton is also a 3+ service-class player. There’s likely too much uncertainty in his outlook to structure a deal, but it’s not out of the question.
It’s tempting to stake out a case for a deal with breakout catcher Mitch Garver, but he’s already 29 years of age and still a full season away from arbitration eligibility. Outfielder Eddie Rosario is two seasons from the open market, but that also gives him greater leverage for a higher price tag. Would the Twins really want to commit?
How about a few wild cards? Infielder Luis Arraez should at least be a nice utility player for years to come. There might be upside in an early deal for the plate-discipline magician. And reliever Taylor Rogers is another interesting target. He’s still three seasons from free agency but gets more impressive with each successive campaign. The Twins will owe him a big raise on his $4.45MM salary if he keeps racking up saves; perhaps a deal could suit both sides.
White Sox
The South Siders have already extended a wide swath of their roster. You might wonder whether there are any candidates left. But the team is exceptionally aggressive in this arena and can’t be counted out on exploring deals with just about anyone of interest.
The most obvious candidate at this point is righty Lucas Giolito. We recently broke down his case for an extension. You could perhaps argue for fellow starters Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease, or even injury rehabbers Michael Kopech and Carlos Rodon, but there’s likely too much uncertainty in each of those situations for the sides to see eye to eye. The same is true of outfielder Nomar Mazara.
If you’re looking for a sleeper candidate … how about second baseman Nick Madrigal? The Sox haven’t been shy at all with pre-MLB extensions and the former fourth-overall pick is just about ready for a run at the game’s highest level.
You guys check out the new DORKTOWN doc on SBnation about the Mariners ?
This is a bad comment. This is about AL Central extensions. I forgot Seattle has an organization. When was the last time they were in the playoffs with an actual chance to win the World Series? Don’t come into my division and talk about a team that not one none baseball fan knows. The last one was Maybe Cano but that was a bad signing. My White Sox are set to make an impact. And try to diss the White Sox. 11-1 in the playoffs with a middle of the pack payroll had 4 compete games in a row to kill the Angels and swept the Astros in the World Series to the point that they had to come up with a cheating plan for a team with enough talent to have a chance. Again get the heck out of my thread. Stick to the topic. Well you know what I’m so sorry I forgot that people that don’t know anything about something even after reading the article don’t give there opinion they say something stupid and no one responds. I’m just trying to teach
Geez, who crapped in your corn flakes?
Seattle has a good NFL team. What’s the name of their MLB team? Does anyone care?
I really wonder how many extensions will be given out now considering there is x amount % chance Covid stretches towards next year etc etc…….
All these things factor in and owners hate giving up cost control if they dont have too especially in a down economy
Saying all that there might be a small window to gamble on when you might be able to secure said players at a lower dollar amount to give the players some certainty at very uncertain times….. should be interesting
Well looks like Mlb took care of this 2 hrs after I posted… probably for the best
Can’t believe that Hunter Dozier wasn’t mentioned! Oh well…
Hunter is going to be good for years to come. Royals need to keep him and make him their next Alex Gordon.
Royals fan here too. What do you think they should do about Soler? Assuming the season does start after the delay, do you think if he plays well, he should get traded?
As an Angels fan I’ve seen what happens when quality pitching isn’t around. The Royals would be wise to try to extend Keller and buy out a couple of free agent years.
He put up 2.8 WAR last year and is young enough that a 6 year deal should work for both sides.
You need pitching every night. Even if he’s a decent 3/4 that’s better than needing to overpay on the free agent market.
This is a good comment
Plutko is not much more than Josh Tomlin 2.0, why on earth would you extend him?!
Yeah, that seems silly. Unless he has one or two really great seasons out of nowhere, he probably won’t get much in arbitration or free agency. Bieber, on the other hand, should’ve been extended yesterday. Get on it, Antonetti/Chernoff.
Not trading Lindor last winter when they should have to get the most for him is going to come back to bite the Indians on the rear end. This guy was never going to re-sign with the Indians and it seems everyone except the Tribe brass has accepted that. Old saying: It’s better trade a player a year too soon than a year too late. This Lindor situation is a classic example of that.
Indianfan, wow, the Indians were supposed to know a pandemic would happen. Your comment was ridiculous. Do you know what they were offered for Lindor this past off season? Likely, if they would have traded him, you would be on here complaining that they did not get enough back for him.
Did the Dodgers make a mistake trading for Mookie Betts? There is a chance, they traded good assets for Mookie and get no games to show for it. No team knew a pandemic was coming.
The feel I’ve gotten for Berrios is he wants to play for a team as committed to success as he is personally. He works as hard as anybody out there to better himself and it’s seemed like he’s been pretty annoyed the Twins have punted over and over and over again. This year looked like the Twins may have been more willing to make a push, but I think they’ll need to make more than a 1 year effort and they won’t be able to get Berrios on the cheap like they did with Kepler and Polanco.