Jean Segura is the Marlins’ biggest addition of the offseason, even though Miami is known to have looked into several other options before inking Segura to a two-year, $17MM contract. Some of those other free agent and trade targets are already off the board, and it appears as though signing Segura ends any chance of an Eduardo Escobar trade, as Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald report that the Marlins had some talks with the Mets about a possible swap.
Timing is everything in trade negotiations, and it seems as though the Marlins checked in on Escobar after the Mets reached their 12-year, $315M agreement with Carlos Correa. Had the Correa deal been finalized fairly quickly, there would’ve been a greater chance of Escobar being moved, as the veteran infielder suddenly would’ve been out of a starting job in New York’s infield. However, the Mets’ issues with Correa’s physical have led to stalled negotiations in finalizing or perhaps even reworking the deal, to the point that other teams have reportedly re-entered the picture. As such, it isn’t surprising that the Mets have opted to hang onto Escobar, leaving the Marlins looking elsewhere for a more immediate lineup fix.
More from around the NL East…
- Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke with reporters (including Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer) about his club’s trade with the Tigers today. Moving three players was “not easy for us,” Dombrowski said, but the Phillies were tempted by the chance to add a quality, controllable reliever like Gregory Soto. The Phillies first talked Soto with the Tigers during the Winter Meetings, but negotiations seemed to cool until this past Thursday, when Dombrowski said that Detroit PBO Scott Harris called to revisit a Soto deal. In regards to the other players involved, Kody Clemens figures to take over one of the bench spots left by Nick Maton or Matt Vierling, and Dombrowski said the other spot could be filled by a future smaller acquisition, or perhaps by a player already in Philadelphia’s system.
- Sean Murphy’s six-year, $73MM extension with the Braves made him the latest Atlanta player to sign a long-term deal within the last year, giving the Braves yet another key player locked up for the majority of the decade. It is a strategy that president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has pursued “for the parameters that we have, for the market we have, for what we have to work with,” and also because of the players’ own buy-in. “These guys are choosing to stay here, and they don’t have to. I think that’s important, and it’s a credit to Atlanta and the organization across the board,” Anthopoulos told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Justin Toscano and other reporters earlier this week. “There’s risk to this, no doubt about it, when you lock yourself into this…But we do like the fact that guys can just worry about going out and playing. They don’t have to worry about making a certain salary, getting certain statistics and so on, and they know they’re going to be here.”
Incoming Mets fans, mad that Cohen has to overpay for anyone to wanna play there…
Time to enjoy the ride, they’re not picking up the tab. You’re only kidding yourself-or trolling, if you think players don’t want to play for the Mets.
The Mets are a joke and always have been, nobody would want to play there if it wasn’t for Steve Cohen.
The yanks are a joke, have overpayed every free agent signing for the last 20 years with conical payrolls and have nothing to show for it.
Wtf is a “conical” payroll?
@Neon: Lol, must be a reference to a dunce cap.
Both NY teams overpay for players to convince them to go to NY. It’s just a reality that the vast majority of players who play there live or came from living from somewhere else that they love over NY.
It’s a very outdated belief that players want to play in NY. Social media connects players to the world. A kid that grew up in Smalltown USA can stay living in Smalltown USA and choose to play with the nearest pro sports team , and still have a global brand and make truckloads of money. Therefore, the NY MLB teams have to overpay. Put a cap on MLB and the Yankees and Mets become the Jets, Knicks, Nets because their front offices are of the same quality as those franchises, with the only reason for any success has been being able to spend their way out of mistakes in other signings, trades and even their draft picks.
I thought NYC teams had to Overpay because of Taxes.
Massive Tax differences between NY and FL. And at Pro-Player salary level, it’s not a rounding error.
But yeah, those teams are richer/large fan bases.
Marlins, so which player(s) on the Marlins have the same endorsement opportunities as the “star” players that play on the Yankees or Mets? How about on the Royals, or Pirates, or Rays, or about half of all MLB teams? To think that players playing in small markets have the same endorsement earning potential as those playing in NY isn’t realistic.
Yeah cause a lot of players are lining up to play in Miami
I would think being on the marlins may make it easier to get an all star game appearance as not a good team so not a lot of choices. Yankees etc have a good team normally so harder to find chances to go to the all star game.
@MFB
You might be right about players not desiring to play in NY, but I don’t believe the Mets front office is likely to remain low quality. I could turn out to be wrong, but my belief is that long term Cohen will use his resources to gain advantages in all of the non-player areas. Your point about money being an advantage will still stand, but they could very well wind up the best run team. We’ll know in about 5 years.
“Nothing to show for it” except for like 5 rings since the mid 1990’s while the Mets haven’t been relevant since the Reagan administration. Enjoy your third place finish with a 350 million dollar payroll yet again, pathetic.
A team that won 101 games last season and made the playoffs isn’t relevant?
They made the wild card round, not the REAL playoffs.
this is a whole new Mets. We don’t have owners who get swindled and are just cheap anymore
Marlins could win with JT, Stanton, Ozona, Yelich, Dee Gordon, Miguel Rojas, and Jose Fernandez which they had in 2015. So what do you know in you empty park, that on Saturday games they let dog in (Bark in the Park- YES the Marlins have that) or when Marlin Man (Laurence Leavy) brings stripper to sit behind home to flash the other team’s Pitcher. NO SIR, Marlins know nothing about Baseball. In 2020, 18 of 26 player contracted covid, so they don’t even know how to stay healthy with a team Dr following them around. But Knowing the Marlins, it must have been Dugie Houser MD
Miami only has South Beach. More of the sport fans are soccer fan ⚽️ not Baseball fans. The plays suck, the food sucks,from June to November is Hurricane season. They built home out of wood in a place that gets hurricanes, so no one was smart enough to have read the 3 pigs to know not to build with wood. It took Hurricane Andrew for the government to tell them stop building with wood. Miami full of unlicensed drivers. Please. Get some fans before you talk smack.
That makes them irrelevant?
@Ella B
First, welcome to the boards like so many of you new Mets fans.
As for your statements, how many MLB players as a whole in any market have any significant endorsement opportunities. You know, the opportunities that go beyond Lenny Muffler in Queens or Mario’s Pizza on Jamaica Ave? MLB players as a whole don’t have much in the significant endorsement categories. Most endorsement deals are mostly local ones.
Now look at the NBA and NFL where the big endorsement deals are happening. Look how many players who aren’t playing in NY are getting major endorsement deals. Any Mets players getting more and bigger endorsement deals than the guy that was our guy in Miami, D-Wade? How about the guy in Portland, Oregon named Damian Lillard? How about the guy Giannis in Milwaukee? Remember some guy that had spent most of his career in Cleveland? His name is LeBron James and was a global brand. You mention Kansas City? OK, let’s look at that NFL Quarterback with his endorsement deals while being in Kansas City. Do I need to mention how many other players in the NFL get major endorsement deals while playing outside of NY? How many Mets players and any NY MLB player (including Judge) have the endorsement deals that those guys have?
FYI…MLB is not the only sport with star players. It is the most poorly run league and its players (including the stars) are behind in endorsement deals when looked at the entire sports landscape…their stars barely staying ahead of their NHL peers when it comes to significant endorsement deals.
Wow, @metfan4ever with the total NY response of stupidly showing how little he knows about Miami.
Hey, so with the Mets being so great, why don’t they have more championships than the Marlins? Why do they have the longest championship drought in the NL East…and one of the longest championship droughts in MLB?
As for all your Miami sucks blah blah, if it sucks down here, why is it that so many of your NYers move here? If NY is so great, why don’t NYers stay living there instead of moving here and so many other places? And don’t show ignorance in making claims that E!SPN and SNY told you about Miami. You see full families and young people come to live here enjoying the life here. Even the NY retirees don’t like NY so they move to Boca Raton and The Villages to get out of that place. You don’t see many Miami people or South Floridians or Floridians as a whole moving to garbage, overrated places like NY – sure as heck not to a trashy junkyard like Brooklyn/Queens.
@mookie1
We’ll see. But from looking at the Yankees, it seems that when a team depends on spending, they usually don’t fix a questionable front office as they just buy their way out of mistakes. The fact that the Mets hold onto Alderson in some capacity and brought in Eppler shows that they may stay on that same track. But like you said, we’ll know in about 5 years.
But I think there is an X-factor to this too. The Mets have to contend with what is clearly a historically (last 30+ years now) very well run organization in Atlanta…who honestly make most competing front offices look stupid.
@MFB
My hope is that Cohen is smarter than previous NY owners. Although Cohen is a little too public for my tastes, he does acknowledge that his baseball expertise is limited. Unlike someone like Jerry Jones, who’s ego has him too involved in player decisions.
My perception is that Alderson and Cohen had a deal in place to help him get approved to buy the Mets. I have my doubts about Eppler, but it’s reasonable to allow for the possibility that he could be successful with his second chance.
You’re right about the Braves, they have gotten almost everything right over the past 30 years. If I could switch my allegiance, I would probably pick them or the Cardinals. The Mets are the team I’m stuck with, so hopefully Cohen will get the Mets to that level of sustained success.
I read some really dumb stuff on here, but metfan4ever takes it to another level with his clown comments. 3 little pigs, lol
For once I agree with you MFB. Metfan4ever takes stupidity to another level with his mindless ramblings.
Now you spend a whole lot more to have the same old results. Just keep sporting those Keith Hernandez, John Franco mustaches and driving those Firebirds. It’s not 1986 anymore!
Puig is available, 3 years $90 million…
This off season has me increasing my kaopectate doses.
Part of their overpay I imagine is the cost of living in New York, but the Nets do typically have to overpay to attract free agents.
I’m not sure if that says guys don’t want to play there, but it certainly isn’t a good look.
Not to mention having a franchise icon wanting out of town, and not wanting to look back in DeGrom compared to the Braves star player crying after signing with another team and his press conference pretty much being about how he never wanted to leave…
That tends to send a loud message to all baseball fans and the players as well…
It may be much to do about nothing, but you combine the overpaying in free agency to attract targets, guys being offered more money in previous seasons and turning them down to play elsewhere, and then having your most recognizable player wanting out of town, add it all together and it isn’t a good look for the Mets.
Did deGrom want to leave the Mets or was it more a matter of the Mets not wanting him for what he got in Texas? Before he made his decision, I thought I had read on this site that he was rumored to want to stay with the Mets.
If a player (like Degrom, Betts,Bogaerts or Freeman) WANTS to STAY w an organization then they WOULD work out a contract that works for BOTH themselves AND the team. Nobody MADE Freddie hold out for the 6th year. They (probably) could’ve had a 5 yr w a vesting option based on certain performance. Chipper Jones even WARNED HIM about overplaying his hand. Nobody FORCED Matt Olson or Sean Murphy to sign extensions. The players CHOSE to. The Braves aren’t shy about spending money. They simply decide to spread the money among players who are WANT to STAY while at the same time earn generational wealth and not chase top dollar. That is how you have a successful franchise year after year.
deGrom was lucky to be in NYC. Who else wins a Cy Young 1 game over 500. He never did interviews after games till MLBPA told him he had to, he would call the official scorer during the game to change HITS to ERROR when a run would score, He never reach out to young pitchers, and He wanted big money for 26 starts in 2 years. He’s not going to give TX 20 starts so I glad he’s gone. If it was back when Wheeler was a FA and if Steve owned the team, we would have kept Wheeler and let him walk. Also, which FA let last year and had a good season, who, Beaz, Thor, who. He’s not an ICON, he’s overrated. Never won 20 games, 15 is his highest. Hasn’t pitched deep in game. Good Riddance
I think the Mets have more than proven $$ isn’t a problem. If deGrom wanted $$, he’d be in NY. The player chose the Rangers.
I don’t think players are allowed to call anyone during a game. That would be a major violation.
Because they offered a lot of $$
Mets rhymes with Jets, Mets.
Mets rhymes with Jets, Nets
What an astute observation
Actually 2 astute observations.
Is there success in repetition?
You can say that again. And again.
Well if the last 30 years are an indicator then no repetition does not lead to success but Billionaires spending a lot and plenty of preseason newspaper headlines.
Wow…didn’t realize that Soto was -0.1 war. Must be all those walks…
War is almost useless for relievers. Soto is a lefty that throws 100mph+. He is controllable for 3 years. He can get wild and walk a ton. He doesn’t give up a ton of homers. He is controllable for 3 years. I think he’ll be solid as a 7th inning type.
I’m on board Purple Hayes – Tired of these nerd stats – Watch TV & not spread sheets…smh
vph, …looks like a controllable version of Jose Alvarado…..?
And since Cotham “fixed” him AND he’s a FA in ’24, maybe Soto is the next in line…..?
Von, take out the words almost, for, and relievers and you nailed it.
DTD, that’s hilarious. We often fear and dismiss what we don’t understand.
I absolutely understand that WAR cannot be proven, nice try though
What do you mean by “proven?” WAR exists. In fact, there are multiple versions of it.
I’m guessing the fact that there isn’t a single definition of WAR is part of your argument against it, but the idea that players’ values can be determined by looking at their overall contributions and evaluating the weight of each event is reasonable.
Certainly, what and how to weight all the variables is debatable, but it’s far from useless.
WAR is an analysis (like OPS+, ERA+, etc.), not a stat. It’s useful in its way to compare players, but isn’t an end-all/be-all. The starting point, 0 WAR, is a leap of faith, but it isn’t a bad concept.
For WAR to be legit, every player would have to simultaneously be in every exact situation at the exact same time, aka, impossible. An impossibility cannot be proven. On top of it being impossible, it’s also useless. You know what players always have the best WAR? Yeah, it’s the upper echelon players. Go figure…
Players have different batting averages, home runs and strikeouts. Those are affected by different situations too. Are they illegitimate?
How do you know that the best WAR players are upper echelon players? What criteria are you using?
Nope, not illegitimate. But we also aren’t trying to make 1 made up number the end all be all that determines what a replacement level player is and how many wins they’re worth to their team throughout the season.
It’s called watching games and knowing baseball. I don’t need a made up stat to tell me Ronald Acuna is better or worth more to his team than Eddie Rosario. Maybe you and others do though.
I literally just said: “It’s useful in its way to compare players, but isn’t an end-all/be-all.”
It’s not useless. It’s just one tool in the toolbox. It’s also not precise. It gives a general range of a player’s performance.
I watch games, I know baseball, and I see the value in WAR and other advanced stats. I’m not dismissive of various ways to understand the game. Maybe you and others are though.
Watching the game gives the exact range of the players performance
I am absolutely dismissive of useless, unprovable statistics.
Good luck watching every single inning of every single game.
There is none so blind as he who will not see.
If you’d lived in the 16th century, you’d have denied the possibility of the existence of bacteria. If you’d lived in the 4th century bc, you’d have called Aristotle a nut for saying the earth wasn’t flat.
You said the best WAR correlates with upper echelon players, but it’s still useless. Weird.
Oh, well, follow the game how you like.
Giving up Maton and Vierling, would be a high price, if Soto is only a 7th inning guy. He is under contract for three years, so maybe D D. is thinking that way for this year, and then closer in 2024/25?
He’s an early Alvarado replacement even though we still have Alvarado.
Vierling was a part time player who barely hit his weight and maton was a up and down part time utility infielder.
Von remind how Alvarados wildness was tamed by the phillies outstanding coaching staff.
It’s the ten unearned runs plus a weaker offensive environment in 2022. His WPA was negative, too, which is not good for a closer. But DD probably likes him since he signed with the Tigers over ten years ago and if he can bounce back to 2021 results, he’ll be good.
The extensions the Braves have given to C, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, right, centerfield, and Strider could blow up–sure anything is possible. I believe this team are set up to win for the next 6 years at least. Really really amazing.
Your front office continues to amaze me with these trades and extensions. You guys are gonna be good for a while, and for steals.
I dont see the Cubs paying the money to keep Happ.
Especially with players like Davis, PCA, Canario, Cassie, Alcantara all between making squad in Spring to 2 to 3yrs away at most (Cassie)
The Braves extensions may be the new ideology, or the demise of the present. It’s a great idea but injuries & behavior remain to be seen. Have at it AA, I like the risk.
While there is risk in any extension or FA contract the risk is born on both sides of these deals. Moreover, most of the players who took these deals are very young so injuries are less likely. Lastly, as they start to get a bit longer in the tooth ATL can hedge new players come up from a rejuvenated farm system since they don’t need to draft for much specifically right now and the penalties from the Coppy era of Braves baseball are gone. So draft pick compensation is back and so too is their normal spending limits on the international market.
It’s what the Indians did in the early-mid ’90s. Sign the young core for long term (cost controlled) contracts. Most of them worked out for both the players and the organization. Is it possible for some of these deals not to work out? Yes. Even so, I’m pretty excited to watch the Braves for the foreseeable future.
The Cardinals have been bying out the arbitration years of the players they view as core for decades. They did it with Albert Pujols which was probably the best contract extension in history. On the downside, they did it with Paul DeJong and he immediately cratered at the plate. Matt Carpenter was another one who cratered the last 3 years of his extension.
I understand that Miami has been In talks with Cubs about a package of Ian Happ and Nick M with the hope that Miami Marlins can get both players under. Long term contract
I can only think that return to Cubs on trade both young superstar would be very high. Maybe 3-4 Top prospects would have to been coming to Cubs
Jed Hoyer said in November his plan is to try to get an extension done for Happ. Madrigal I could see going though.
Makes ZERO sense.
If Cubs can’t sign Happ, the Marlins certainly aren’t going to be able to, and trading any talent for one year of Happ when the team has to leapfrog Mets, Braves and Philliies is ridiculous.. Furthermore, Madrigal brings nothing to the table given Miami is trying to upgrade its power and offense., and already has Chisholm, Rojas, Wendle and Berti..
I would think that Miami Marlins only make the deal for Ian Happ and Nick M If they can get both players sign on new long term Deals.
I think It would take about 175-200 million to get both players on new deals
Happ 6yrs = 120 Million
Nick M = 6 yrs = 70 Million
Lol
Who in their right mind would give Nick Madrigal 70 million dollars?
He’s worth about half of that. &im not sure why you’d even given him that. You have him in arb for 4 more years and he’s not the type of player who gets expensive in that process.
What happened to the Bauer comments section?
@chipper – The thread was suspended for disciplinary reasons, and then designated for oblivion.
Probably a wise idea from the little that I have seen on here (the comments sections) thus far..
Looks like smarter heads prevailed….Admit I went to the bottom of the article after the first paragraph……….
In hindsight asking the “moderators” to police the comments might be too much….
Either way, I’ll be looking forward to see who signs him….He was a jerk before all THAT came up….but it will still be interesting….
I think he’s going to Asia.
Agree with you Braves83. This offseason as we all have seen has been ridiculous with the yrs/dollars these players have secured. Great for the players, however, I feel more than a few are going to be horrible down the road. Paying a SS 25M plus at age 37 plus is ridiculous.
What happened to the Bauer comments section?
The site always suspends comments on that type of topic. Imo, it’s a good idea to do so. Always turns into a virtue signaling free for all on other sites that allow “discussion” of domestic violence issues. Just how many times do we need to read opinions that Bauer’s and other DV offenders behavior was/is despicable?
It’s been moved to the dark web.
Postponed due to stormy opinions on both sides,
Head for a shelter, & avoid any sexual innuendos
I’m not going to post a Bauer/innuendo type pun..I’m sure it was on the banned thread anyways
There’s probably an ongoing, lively discussion over at 8kun (the former 8chan).
NYM need one more pen arm and a 4th outfielder that can spell Marte and Nimmo. Odds are both with spend reasonable time on IL. Unless he has remarkable turnaround, Khalil Lee doesn’t look like he can adjust to MLB pitching. Those things are still available now on FA. Would expect them to make at least a modest deal before pitchers and catchers.
As for the Marlins, Marlins fans have already figured out the front office effort. Supposedly be in on so many players that they don’t land for one reason or other, then when they show up to Spring Training in several weeks, they’ll say, “We tried.”
And right now, the Segura signing looks every bit like a move to silence the fans the certain members of the local media.
Detroit trading relievers (Jimenez and Soto) for prospects. That’s how you raise your floor and build depth.
AA is a monster, has proven so much that as a baseball fan makes me confident his decision making shouldn’t be questioned. And sure you can question his decisions, but I think the chances of him proving you wrong (generally speaking) are very high.
Man I hate the Braves. I’ve noticed hate = respect in sports.
Without a doubt, a schizophrenic answer.
You’re kinda different dude
Lots of truth in this comment. I completely respect AA and the Braves while also hating them.
As much as I didn’t like the Soto trade at first I think I like it more and more. Should’ve gotten more in return but he walks a lot of batters and is always rocky when he comes in for the save. Kinda like Roller Coaster Todd Jones was. Tiger fans were joking about rebuilding the rebuild and that’s exactly what is happening with this trade. I almost bought some tickets the other day but was like not at that price. I mean I’ll still go to a couple games just because it’s Miggy’s final season and there’s still Torkelson and Greene.
ActionDan;
Tigers coaching staff is questionable…
The new POBO traded a few bullpen guys that with proper handling can be very good. They weren’t going to mean much to that Tigers team. Fixing the bullpen isn’t the what the Tigers need to address now. Getting some decent position players is. The Tigers are 2 years away from even being respectable.
Scott Harris made some nice moves.
I remember the “lean” yrs in ATL late 2000’s early 2010’s it was brutal watching. The past few yrs I’ve watched and experienced Truist Park. Fans have showed up and packed the place. No 3 in attendance in 2022 even with a smaller seating capacity. AA and the rest of the the leadership has these guys buying in to the organization. Players want to play there and know they May leave some dollars on the table.
The Braves have a very curious model. I wonder how these Contracts will look in ten years. I like what they’re doing. It seems cost controllable and the players seem to like it there. Freddie Freeman is pissed he Left. I say good luck to them.
All I care about the Marlins doing right now is adding 2-3 bullpen arms, preferably at least 2 that can pitch in high leverage situations. Everything else doesnt matter until that happens, unless of course they were to make 1 or 2 incredibly short sighted/at best questionable trades, which it does seem likely based on the reports of their involvements
Looking forward to what the Mini Roidrocket can do in Philly.
How long until one of the players the Braves extended holds out until they renegotiate his contract?
My bet is on Acuna.
You don’t hold out to renegotiate in MLB. This isn’t the NFL
Oh and why not? What exactly is stopping him?
If a player tried to hold out, the team would put him on the restricted list and he wouldn’t get paid anything. That would only be done in an extremely toxic situation, which the Braves don’t have. Derek Bell initiated Operation Shutdown, and it ended his career, which was mostly over anyway.
Acuña and Albies are already barely getting paid anything. At some point their respective agents aren’t going to just let them play for like no money.
Their agents work for them, not the other way around. I’d be really surprised if they welshed on the deal they’ve got.
@jim: When Acuna signed that deal, it was the largest contract ever signed by a player his age. What should the Braves do now? Pay him more because the economics have changed since the deal was signed? If they think he deserves more, the organization can pay him more by adding years to the deal. Can’t hold out on guaranteed contracts. Their “respective agents” have no right to entice players to welch on their deals. “Play for no money”? What a childish pov. They’re being paid millions of dollars. They signed those deals for guaranteed money vs the risk of injury and non-performance.
Love the ATL template
Can only Imagine that front office is chock- full of winners all the way down to the interns
Next Braves extension Bryan Reynolds.
@Neon Cop
Weren’t the Phillies a wildcard team? Didn’t they make it WS?? All playoffs are real.