After a year off, Giants icon Buster Posey will return as their “primary catcher” in 2021, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle) on Tuesday. Posey opted out of last season over family health concerns (he and his wife had just adopted twin girls who were born prematurely), and he discussed his decision this week with Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. The 33-year-old told Baggarly he’s “comfortable” with the choice he made because of the unknowns at the time, including whether Major League Baseball would even be able to get through its season. Posey added that he’s “confident” he’ll play next year, which will be the last guaranteed season of his contract. The Giants may have an heir apparent in Joey Bart, but he and the rest of their catchers had rocky seasons in 2020. It now appears they’ll take a backseat to Posey for at least one more year.
- Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said Tuesday he was unaware of any extension talks between the team and ace Max Scherzer. It appears those could get underway soon, though. Agent Scott Boras said he’ll get together with Nationals owner Ted Lerner after the new year, and “we’ll see how that goes” (via Todd Dybas of NBC Sports Washington). That doesn’t necessarily mean the two sides will just discuss Scherzer – Boras does represent other Nats, not to mention current free agents – but the three-time Cy Young winner does seem likely to be a key part of the discussion. Scherzer’s entering the last season of the seven-year, $210MM he signed with the Nationals in 2015.
- The Reds are among the teams interested in free-agent reliever Ryne Stanek, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reports. The 29-year-old right-hander spent last season in Miami, where he yielded eight earned runs on 11 hits (including three homers) and eight walks in just 10 innings. The Marlins non-tendered the hard-throwing Stanek after that ghastly showing. To Stanek’s credit, he isn’t far removed from a strong run from 2018-19 as a Ray and Marlin. He frequently worked as an opener then and combined for a 3.52 ERA/3.94 FIP with 10.67 K/9 against 4.14 BB/9 across 143 1/3 innings. Stanek will have another two years of arbitration eligibility left after 2021, so he could be a multiyear piece for the Reds or someone else if he bounces back.
Philly could use Stanek as a swingman
If I was the Phillies, I would prioritize re-signing Realmuto, then going after some low cost, possibly high reward pitching like Kluber, Archer, Walker, and Paxton. I would try to sign at least One of those, then go after none tendered guys like Danny Santana and Eddy Rosario to upgrade the Line up, and try o land a CL like Yates who underperformed or Roberto Osuna as well. They should stay away from the top tiers unless is Realmuto in order to address multiple issues. How about this?
1.Segura SS
2.Bohm 3B
3.Harper RF
4.Realmuto C
5.Rosario LF
6.McCutchen DH
7.Hoskins 1B (He needs to hit lower until he refines him self).
8.Kingery/Santana 2B-Super Utility Role.
9.Healey CF
1.Nola
2.Kluber
3.Wheeler
4.Paxton
5.Eflin
6.Howard
7.Velasquez
Neris
Yates/Osuna
Lol, Kluber will cost ~$14m range, Paxton will be ~$12m, Rosario will be $11m, and Yates ~$5m, let alone Realmuto whose looking ~$25m. That’s $67m you’re talking about adding to a payroll that outlets have already reported the team would like to try and cut. You either get Realmuto and maybe Yates but none of the others or maybe can get one of Kluber/Paxton and then Rosario and Yates. With the slim SP market, I’m guessing MLBTRs projected salaries for Kluber and Paxton increase too.
Dcrising – totally agreed……half of the people posting on this site complain about their team not signing all the big names free agents and calling the owners “cheap”….to4 recommending $67 million in spending for a team that says it wants to cut payroll…..?…not happening.
Kluber’s not getting $14-mil. Doubtful Rosario breaks $10-mil.
Kluber’s not getting 14 mil. Maybe a 6-8 mil deal, loaded with innings pitched incentives that could add a couple million more. He’s pitched 36 innings, total, in 2 seasons.
If the deal is loaded with incentives, wouldn’t the Phillies need to be ready to pay the incentives? Not exactly a good plan if you can’t afford him fully loaded.
Never said anything about the Phillies. Just an opinion on his potential contract, not an opinion on who signs him.
Rosario won’t command $11m. He was dropped by the Twins because they thought ~ $10m was too much.
I agree. IMHO, those numbers are close to double what they will actually get. Kluber still hasn’t had a pitching session yet, and will not have shown anything in 30 months by the time April rolls around, and is 36.
Segura is not acceptable at SS anymore.. Stick him at 2B or 3B and Bohm at 1B if the NL has the DH. Didi wants to come back. Pay him. Forget Santana & Rosario.
Face it. Realmuto is gone
There’s a lot if truth to this. We haven’t had a solid swingman on this team since Kyle Kendrick (a role he was best at btw).
The General Manager says he’s “unaware” of any extension talks with his star pitcher? Umm … that’s a bit of a strange way to put it.
Yeah I thought that was an odd way to put it as well. Like either there are extension talks — which you’d assume the GM would be a part of — or there aren’t. It seems strange to phrase it as not being “aware” of any… unless he was being sarcastic calling out reporters for claiming there were extension talks so he was sarcastically responding that it was “news to him” sort thing
Lerner and Boras go way back and have one of those relationships that Boras loves, where he can bypass the GM and talk straight to the owner. Kind of like old man Ilitch when he owned the Tigers. Can bypass the baseball people and get the ownership group to agree to a lot of his demands. He became close with the Lerner’s when they took his clients at back-to-back #1 overall. Good work if you can get it.
Hhhhmmm. I agree @seam and @Jeff. “Not to the best of my recollection.”
It means Boras negotiates with the owner directly often in Wash
That means Boras talks directly to the Lerner’s. And maybe they forgot to tell him.
I get that Lerner owns the team and it’s his money and he makes the call on super contracts etc. Ok, I get it.
But doesn’t it seem odd that GM and President of Baseball Operations, Mike Rizzo, recent recipient of a new extension on his contract, is not fully briefed and up to speed on all current and potential contract negotiations with ALL his players?
Perhaps those negotiations haven’t actually happened? Baseball is like politics: speculation by pundit reporters often leads to misinformation being dispensed as “reports.”
I’m sure Rizzo and Lerner communicate daily. I wouldn’t read much into a statement like this by Rizzo. I sense he was trying to deflect the topic as opposed to addressing it.
Stanek could be a solid pickup for a team like the Red Sox. They need all bullpen help they can get and the familiarity with Bloom could work in his favor — his last effective season was with the Rays… and since has been quite bad for the Marlins… but maybe he can return to form and would be a very low risk/high reward situation for the Sox… and if he does return to form he’d be controllable through arbitration so he could wind up sticking around for several years in Boston, should they pursue a deal with him.
Blue Jays are intrested in Stanek.
Yep. Stanek is the only player that the Jays have been linked to this offseason.
They’re interested in every FA and available trade
It’s tough to live up to a $210mil contract but Scherzer surely did.
Out of the 6 years so far…finished top 5 in CY 5 of the 6 years, won it 2 twice, lead the league in K’s 3 times, 2 no hitters in his first season for the Nats and guts out a game 7 for a Nats WS win. Yeah I’d say he earned his money.
Very good point. When he left us in DET after turning down 6yr/$144m I thought he was nuts… but he bet on himself and I have nothing but respect to him for going and getting paid; more to your point, getting paid every dime he was worth.
Boras made a very legitimate point about Scherzer when he was a FA. He said that Scherzer had a less innings on his arm than some of his contemporaries. He had 1,239 IPs, as compared to say Price, who had 1,441 when he became a FA.
That said, if he lasts another 3 years, then he is on a HOF track.
Max doesn’t have to last 3 more years to prove anything. He has nothing left to prove. He’s on a HOF track now.
He could retire now and he’d be elected to the HOF.
Scherzer and the HOF are a done deal. 4x in wins, 3x in SOs, 4x in WHIP, 7 straight years top 5 in CY voting with 3 wins. Anything after this are just numbers, though it appears he’ll get to 200 wins and 3000 SOs.
7 straight years in top 5 is the key stat. That’s first ballot territory.
Think the focus of those talks will probably be Soto and Turners’ extensions.
Go Orioles
will be interesting to see if Busty Poser has anything left in the tank in 2021…
WarrenSpahn:
It’s not so much a question of anything left in the tank, as it is a question of his health. 2018 wasn’t a bad year, but he had a hip injury. A lot of teams would love to get a 108 OPS+ from a top defensive catcher, but it was a down year for him. He had averaged a 136 OPS+ until then. He apparently wasn’t entirely recovered from off-season surgery in 2019.
There is reason to be hopeful for 2021, especially since he opted out last year. If he is still hampered by his hip, his career is probably over. But if he’s recovered and rehabbed, like I think he is, he’ll be a big contributor even if he’s not entirely his former self. He can still be very good, even if he’s no longer great.
He’s also 33 years old so probably won’t bounce back much offensively, but, yea, the defense is still prime and even with a league average bat that pretty much makes him an all-star at the position.
I disagree in that his hip was causing him to fail to drive the ball, I think if he is healed we could see more power out of him pretty quickly and if he isn’t it is going to be tough to see a path to playing too much into the future.
yea…not so much. so many young catchers now with more pop and better defense metrics than Poser. He had a good run, but it’s over and he seems to not enjoy baseball much anymore, i.e. bailing on his team last season as if he is the only MLB player with a family and kids
Scherzer and the HOF are a done deal. 4x in wins, 3x in SOs, 4x in WHIP, 7 straight years top 5 in CY voting with 3 firsts. Whatever’s after this is icing on the cake, though it appears he’ll get to 200 wins and 3000 SOs.
Ted should completely step aside and let his son Mark, who is supposedly the Managing Owner now, and Rizzo deal with high level personnel matters. Of course he won’t, and won’t even see what’s wrong with it.
Success or failure starts at the top. The Nats won a WS. We’re not talking about Daniel Snyder here. If Ted is going to commit to a 9 figure contract, he wants to know who he’s giving it to, like most business owners.. He’s not a fool. And who’s to say that he doesn’t listen to Rizzo or Mark.