Right-handers Tomoyuki Sugano and Kohei Arihara “are on the Padres’ radar,” The Athletic’s Dennis Lin writes (subscription required). The two Nippon Professional Baseball veterans will both be available on the posting market, and represent intriguing alternatives to more established Major Leaguer hurlers in free agency. As Lin notes, the Padres have worked to establish a scouting pipeline to the Asian leagues, with Pierce Johnson and Kazuhisa Makita representing San Diego’s most prominent NPB signings in recent years.
Sugano and Arihara are quite likely to each land multi-year deals but perhaps not overly long commitments, which could appeal to a Padres team Lin says is “mulling one-year deals as a way to reinforce a rotation.” The Padres will be without Mike Clevinger in 2021 due to Tommy John surgery, leaving a vacancy in the starting mix.
Some more from around baseball…
- Jason Varitek officially joined the Red Sox coaching staff earlier this month, working in the new position of game planning coordinator. This is Varitek’s first assignment as a full-time MLB coach, and the longtime former catcher tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that eventually managing a team is “the ultimate goal” down the road in his post-playing career. Varitek has worked as a special assistant within the Boston front office since 2012, a post that has allowed him to dabble in several different organizational facets such as scouting, player development, and (most recently) working with Red Sox catchers throughout the 2020 season. “There are no set parameters” to the game planning coordinator job, Varitek said: “I’ll work with the catchers and pitchers and be a liaison with the analytics people. Whatever comes my way, I’ll help out. It ends up being the same thing I have been doing, helping the players grow.”
- The Pirates are known to be considering all options on the trade front this winter, though The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel (subscription required) doesn’t think Josh Bell or Gregory Polanco will be dealt since the Bucs would likely be selling low on either player. “It’s more likely than not” that Joe Musgrove will be traded, though Biertempfel also thinks it’s possible Musgrove could be signed to a contract extension, with Pittsburgh either seeing him as a long-term piece or perhaps using the extension as a way of enhancing Musgrove’s trade value.
Pittsburgh & “long term plans” in the same sentence?
Lol
New sheriff in town so anything is possible. If Huntington still wore the badge I would be thinking like you. Too soon to judge Cherington yet.
Cherington is terrific, give him a chance. He made some mistakes in Boston but learned, n he made some wonderful choices in Boston too.
Agree !
Cherington seems to know what he’s doing. I like that it looks like he has a plan and potential timeline in place.
He’s excellent n learned by his mistakes. But he made more great than bad moves.
Good for Varitek. I believe a game planning co-ordination was what Cora was doing with the Astros.
I’m sorry guys, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed so hang in there with me?? Do you mean to tell me that the Atlanta Braves have 1 of the Top 5 players in all of Baseball, Ronald Acuna Jr and 1 of the best young 2nd basemen in all of Baseball Ozzie Albeis on Guaranteed Salary where they are making $5 million and $3 million respectively each season? My next question is who represents them? They have the worst Agents of all time!! The Braves are paying Peanuts for Acuna and Albeis
Acuna signed an 8yr $100mil contract that bought out his arb eligible years… That’s a pretty nice deal..
It was probably part of an agreement when they were signed as international free agents. The old okeydoke. Braves have done it for years and finally got caught.
braves4life1:
Although, in general, Braves fans defended the deals, you’re sharp enough to know they could have done much better. Especially Acuna, who’s on par with guys making twice, to two-and-a-half times more than he is.
When you think that Kris Bryant is projected to make something like $18M to $19M in arbitration and Acuna’s contract has an AAV of $12.5M, it seems to me, he got short-changed.
Nobody put a gun to their head and forced them. Yeah they are definitely underpaid but the pre arbitration and arbitration years were bought out. Maybe they wanted to stay on the same team long term? Either way it’s life changing money
@Mrtwotone they didn’t need to sign those extensions to stay on the same team long-term
They obviously got what they wanted. They got their arbitration years bought out and gained a lot more money in the short term with long term security. Plus, both will still be young enough to cash in on a big money deal when these contracts are up. They love it in ATL and ATL loves them. Everyone wins…team, players, fans
I think it’s odd that the Pirates want to extend Bell out of anyone else on their roster. Sure he was good more often than not in 2019, but his career has been the definition of a roller coaster. sometimes he looks like he could be a silver slugger winner. Other times, he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of the boat. On Musgrove, they need to decide this off season whether to extend him or trade him. He’s a really underrated pitcher because he not only plays for thr Pirates but his surface numbers aren’t great. Get a decent defense behind him and you have a high end 3 starter, potential number 2 starter..
I fell out of a boat once and didnt hit water. It was in the driveway.
Where did you read that Pittsburg is looking to extend Bell? The article says they might extend Musgrove but doesn’t say anything about extending Bell.
Last month, the Pirates said that they were going to explore an extension with Josh Bell: mlbtraderumors.com/2020/10/pirates-to-explore-josh…
I just find it odd that of all the players they have, he’s been the only one they’ve explicitly want to go after.
Agreed! Only if NL went DH full-time could an extension to keep Bell in Pittsburgh seem to make sense. But, of course, that is IMHO, just from the surface.
So the question for Red Sox Nation has always been if “Teck” wants to be a manager. Judging from the quote (“the ultimate goal”), apparently he does. I wonder how long it will be until teams start calling?
I suspect, not very.
As a Red Sox fan I want him to work on the bench for Cora until Cora is fried then he takes & keeps the job
I love Tek n I love Cora. It’s what’s best for the team, n this team it’s Cora atm.
lefty177:
Fried Cora isn’t that healthy, especially if you have to sit on the bench for any length of time before they do the frying.
Try Frank’s Hot Sauce. I put that s–t on everything.
Yeah, Varitek needs to learn how to cheat in other ways than taking PEDs
My guess is they haven’t called cuz he’s devoted to the Redsox since 2012, long time. The was part of the trade the Mariners gave to the Redsox for that horrific Slocum. That was prolly the BEST outcome the RS ever got in a trade. I always felt badly for the Mariners.
You neglected to mention that the Mariners stuck the SOX with D Lowe in that trade. I always celebrate July 17…. the birth of 2 RS WS wins.
He was amazing I adored him n my bad not mentioning Derek. I think he pitched the clincher in the WS.
D Lowe was the W pitcher in the clinchers vs Angels, Yanks and Cards in 2004.
Excellent job for Tek the team. I was wondering what his job meant but he explained it being a liaison between analytics n the team, excellent job. I wish him well he’s a great guy n when the time comes he’ll manage n be a fantastic manager. We all adore Tek!
When do you guys think the meaningful transactions will actually begin? After the tender/non-tender deadline this Wednesday?
I’d say Morton and Minor are pretty meaningful.
The Padres probably won’t sign either Sugano or Arihara as Sugano will probably cost $51 million over three years and Arihara will probably cost $16 million over two years
I don’t see the Pirates being competitive under owner Bob Nutting. He is quite simply the worst.
I really don’t see Sugano signing for a one year deal. I’m sure both he and his posting team are looking for a minimum 3 year commitment from someone. Provided that the AAV is reasonable, he seems worthy of a 3 year gamble. He could fit well in Boston actually. 3/$21M
Definitely worth a 3 year gamble, but I don’t see it being 7 mill a year. A lot of guys are going to struggle to get 7 mill a year. Unless he does a structured deal of like 5 mill 2021, 7 mill 2022, 9 mill 2023.
Given the current state of finances I can see mlb players signing 1 year deals with player option for a second year hoping the market rebounds in 2022 so they’re not locked into lower aav long term deals.
Both Asian imports would front the Red Sox rotation….OTOH, so would Hop Sing, the cook for the Cartwrights on Bonanza….
Why in hell would you want to extend musgrove. Dude seems very overrated.
Preller checkbook given by owners is the bottom feeding kind now
Preller is “mulling one year deals as a way to reinforce the rotation?” Somebody needs to take a closer look at the Padres staff. Even WITH Clevinger, they needed two more reliable SPs. As of now, two decent starters is a necessity. Preller can’t run that staff the same way he did in a 60 game season.
Padres will be bottom feeders 2021
They will be if they don’t get some good pitching. Even then, Preller/Tingler need to demonstrate they can manage a real live ML pitching staff. Assuming Preller can put one together.
Padres could dive back in to the former major leaguer overseas looking for pitching help.
Dan Straily, Erik Jokisch, Raul Alcantara, Chris Flexen had very productive seasons over seas this past year and at best could see a 2 year 6 mill Merrill Kelley received from the DBacks. Could be worth a shot.
Would be interesting to see the Padres chase after Tetsuto Yamada. If the DH is permanent they should move Cronenworth to OF, Pham to DH, and put Yamada at 2B.
Varitek seems to be very patient in his journey to becoming a manager. Not typical in this day and age. He might be my favorite only because they didn’t screw it up like with Fisk. Happy that he is still a Red Sox.