Some notes from around the league:
- The Rangers have expressed interest in free agent left-hander J.A. Happ, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com (Twitter link). Texas is expected to work younger players into the fold after posting the worst record in the American League in 2020. Nevertheless, the Rangers figure to explore the market for plenty of lower-cost starting pitchers this winter, particularly if they trade Lance Lynn before his final year under contract. The 38-year-old Happ put up a 4.57 ERA across 210.2 innings with the Yankees from 2019-20. He’s also known to have drawn some attention from the Angels, likely among plenty of others.
- The Pirates designated José Osuna for assignment yesterday, suggesting they were prepared to non-tender him rather than pay his projected $1.1MM arbitration salary. The organization expects Osuna to pursue an opportunity in Asia, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters (including Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic). It isn’t yet clear if that job is in Japan’s NPB or in South Korea’s KBO. The 27-year-old (28 in December) hit .241/.280/.430 over 705 plate appearances for Pittsburgh over the past four seasons.
- Aroldis Chapman will now serve a two-game suspension to start the 2021 season, relays Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). The Yankees reliever was originally suspended three games for (intentionally, in MLB’s determination) throwing a pitch near the head of Rays infielder Mike Brosseau. Chapman managed to shave a game off on appeal. Brosseau, of course, went on to hit a series-winning home run off Chapman a month later during Tampa Bay’s run to the American League pennant.
Welp, that’s that.
I figured Haap would go back to the Yankees. Chapman is such a nice guy….
Happ was angry with the Yankees for skipping him early in the season – when he was pitching like Crapp and was being skipped for Cole – because it meant his option didn’t vest.
He won’t be back in NY, unless the Mets want him.
How do you decide a three game suspension should be a two game suspension? Just ridiculous.
I’ts kind of the status quo. If your suspension is for multiple games and you appeal, you almost always get at least a game knocked off. I don’t know why that is, but that seems to be the case.
i highly doubt its that simple
MLB hands out penalty by the books and Chapman’s representation argues based on precedent. Same way the courts works.
The courts aren’t exactly the greatest either.
It is that simple.
Go immediately into your car, drive 90 MPH past a cop, get a speeding ticket, and take it to court. Almost guaranteed you’ll be offered a lower fine than the ticket. It’s a win-win, you pay less and they get the conviction. Same deal with MLB suspensions.
Not to be fully legal, but you would pay more in fines which works out better for the municipality in the long run. Points on a license mean nothing to them. Not sure this is a good correlation.
I think after Brousseau emasculated Chapman with his HR, they decided that was punishment enough and they decided to reduce the penalty.
The real sting was Altuve’s HR in ’19 with a Hefty bag in his back pocket. This past season was weird in so many so I didn’t have any expectations.
Chapman has a habit of giving up the long ball in clutch playoff situations. ‘16 Cubs, ‘19 and ‘20 Yankees. Cubs were lucky to be at home game 7 or Chapman’s long ball oops would have ended 3 playoff series. He doesn’t impress me in the postseason.
Great closers are still great closers. Mariano Rivera whose entire career I followed wasn’t perfect either and blew big postseason games. He had short stretches every season where he looked like a position player pitching. I’ll still take an elite closer anyday.
Game seven of 2016 ws was in Cleveland, not Chicago.
He didn’t hit him, it was attempted hit batter, he also got a game off for good behavior in giving up the game winner
C’mon Jerry, prove me right. pick up the phone and call Jay-A. Don’t get his name wrong. He hates that.
Happ will likely get a fair amount of interest this winter from rebuilding teams looking for a possible trade piece at mid-season.
Osuna will likely put up big power numbers in either the NPB or the KBO
I’m sorry, but JD should be fired if he signs Happ. There are sooo many more options to fill our two holes in the rotation. Trevor Williams, Paxton, Kluber, Archer, and Desclafani are some names that come to mind. Happ was decent last season, but he’s 38, and on a 1 year deal the value you’d get back in a mid-season deal would be close to nothing. Get a guy like Paxton on 3 -30 or Archer (for maybe 2 seasons….), and they’d bring so much more value back in a future trade if they pay off. Ideally, I want to see us sign either Paxton and Archer or get Paxton and Williams. Wouldn’t mind Desclafani either… But please… Don’t. Get. Happ. Learn from the Lyles and Gibson moves last off-season, and go with some safer guys this off-season.
With the rangers luck on injury prone players i would say JD should be fired for trying to go after paxton and not sign him. Happ as your number 5 is not bad as he will eat inning for you and give you a decent chance at games. He also rarely hits the IL so you can count on him for every 5th day or long man in the pen. .
Dude I hate to tell you but no matter what JD does your guys are finishing in the bottom three.
Tbh, I kinda want to finish in the bottom three lol. It’s sad, but I’d rather have low expectations and meet them than have high expectations and not. Ideally, we sign guys like Kim, Archer, Paxton, and trade Lynn this off-season, then next off-season we get rid of JD and bring in Theo Epstein to push this team back to greatness. I like what we look like in 22′ with guys like Jung, Huff, Gallo, Kim (hopefully), IKF, Taveras, Solak, and Calhoun putting out a really good lineup. Let Theo do his thing (and hopefully Bob and Ray sell the team to somebody who cares… Cuban), and not just get Theo, but an entire FO change as well. Drafting, developing, analytics, coaching, all of it. Then maybe we can finally draft well and not try and be “cute” with our picks.
Then after they draft me in the mid 2020’s and I take to to back to back to back championships, I can take over as GM and lead the team into another dynastic run… LMAO.
Trust me, getting leftovers from the Pirates rotation will not make you better. Not sure if Archer will play next season, Williams is fine as a back end guy I suppose but I don’t see why they’d have much trade value because Pittsburgh tried for a year to trade .and Archer is broken. Not sure if Paxton signs a 3-30 deal
As a Yankee fan, Happ is not a bad option for back end starter, he’ll pitch every game unlike Paxton who has much better stuff but throws to many pitches and can’t seem to stay healthy. He’ll also come in at 1/2 the price. The Yankees screwed with him last 2 seasons
Happ being a 2 pitch pitcher needs his control to be on and to not try and go through an lineup more than 2 times…..but he’s relatively healthy all the time, and will make every start and give you all the innings he possibly can…..a good value for a team in need of a 4-5 guy at the back end….occasionally he’ll give you that great start, but don’t be deceived he’s basically a back end starter these days.
Paxton is truly an enigma….gets hurt getting out of bed in the morning and max might give 160 innings over the course of a 162 game season….another guy though that shouldn’t be regularly allowed to face a lineup more than twice before going to the bullpen…..way overpriced and underperformed for the Yankees when they needed him most.
brosseaus hr was just awesome. that was one of the best moments this season, and in my opinion in a long time.
so nice to see him send the yanks home like that.
In reference to the good to see the Yankees lose comments, Nice to see Brosseau have his moment in the sun….but nothing but a journeyman that is playing for the right team in the Rays……Chapman like all the greats is human and can be beaten by the right guy at the right time….hats off to the guy as his homers changed everything for the Yankees last season…..but before we put him in the HOF lets see what he does this year!
Insert eyeroll
I did not read that mnsportsfan said anything about how great Brosseau is, just that he enjoyed the hr. Defensive yankee fans, geesh. Are you aware of what a straw man argument is? You just provided a classic case, rocky.
Brosseau owning Chapman’s soul in the postseason was punishment enough. One of the best examples of sports karma of the year.
3 games next season. Big deal. He probably wasn’t going to pitch or even be needed the first 3 games of season anyway.
He makes $16M next year so a two-game suspension will cost him a little less than $200K. Still stings, no?
Wouldn’t it be “only” $20K?
NO to Osuna as posited herein! After what he did he can go to another team. I know he already did his “time” as the euphemism frequently appears here, but personal decisions and character should matter still. Go somewhere else – Boston, for example, would be perfect.
And I think Chapman May have just joined the conversation above (Elena)…. lol
Do you have the correct Osuna, or are you referring to Roberto?
You know we’re talking about *JOSE OSUNA* not Roberto Osuna, right?
Jose Osuna is a lightly used 1B/LF that is the definition of AAAA-Player.
Whoops, my bad wrong Osuna. Elena’s post threw me all kinds of off…. Dammit, they should limit MLB to only one last name per person, no duplicates! One Smith, one Taylor, one Osuna. C’mon Manfred make it happen!
Sorry Osuna – the one above, not the domestic violence guy.
Osuna has some power bat but really never got consistent time to show it. 2019 was as close as he got and was .. respectable at least as a 4th OF. has a gun of an arm too.
Someone in the MLB is likely interested, but might get paid more overseas.