With the biggest story of the offseason finally seemingly having reached a conclusion, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Devers, Correa deals expected to be announced today.
Over the past week, both Rafael Devers and, more surprisingly, Carlos Correa have signed long-term deals with the clubs they played for in 2022. Devers signed a 10-year, $313.5MM extension that will begin with the 2024 campaign, lessening the 2023 burden on the Red Sox for luxury tax purposes. Boston is planning a press conference for 11am EST to announce the deal. Correa, meanwhile, has landed with the Twins on a six-year, $200MM deal that could escalate to a ten-year, $270MM through a series of four vesting options. Correa’s pact to return to the Twins is his third agreement of the offseason after a 13-year, $350MM deal with the Giants and a 12-year, $315MM deal with the Mets both fell apart after the teams conducted their physical of Correa. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that the Twins had no such issues with Correa’s physical and expect to announce the deal with him sometime today.
2. Where does the SP market stand with Cueto off the board?
Veteran starting pitcher Johnny Cueto landed in Miami yesterday on a one-year, $8.5MM guarantee. The signing fortifies an already deep Marlins rotation and further strengthens their position on the trade market, both by allowing them to more freely deal cost-controlled pitching from their rotation and by taking arguably the top remaining starter out of free agency and limiting the options of clubs still looking to add pitching. So, what options do clubs looking to add a free agent starter have still available now that Cueto’s off the board? The pickings are slim, with just two unsigned pitchers who tossed at least 100 innings with an ERA below 4.50 in 2022: Zack Greinke, who would be pitching at age 39 in 2023, and Michael Wacha, whose solid 2022 showing marked a nice rebound from a 5.05 ERA (81 ERA+) and 5.11 FIP across 285 1/3 innings from 2019-2021. Outside of those two aforementioned righties, all that remains on the free agent market are fliers who were injured in 2022, like Danny Duffy and Michael Pineda, or bounce-back candidates like Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy. Pitching-hungry teams will need to look to the trade market, where the Marlins, Brewers, Mariners and Mets — among others — could have options of varying quality available.
3. MLBTR chat today
Yesterday, MLBTR’s Steve Adams fielded questions during a live chat (transcript here). If you still have unanswered questions about this offseason or the direction of your favorite team, you’re in luck, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco will be hosting another chat today at 5pm CT. You can submit a question in advance here, and you can use the same link to check back in this evening and participate live once the chat begins.
I remain a bit surprised that Greinke and the Royals haven’t re-upped. Didn’t both sides say they wanted a reunion?
At this point, Greinke reminds me of a late-career Greg Maddox. Maybe the Royals feel there’s no rush–or maybe they don’t think they want to pay him. He made $13M last year, and that would be a fairly high number, even with a discount, for KC to want to pay.
What team (s) do you think would actually be interested in Aroldis Chapman, even after his disappointing 2022 season, and more importantly, his idiotic behavior/attitude in the 2022 post season? If there are any teams interested, do you think Chapman categorized himself into being a lower base plus incentives deal type of situation?
He abandoned his team at the end, plus he decided to get a tattoo in season that became infected. Team club houses will not view him positively. I wonder if Bauer or Chapman will even get Spring Training invites.
Chapman quit on his team. That was way worse than not pitching well. He will be lucky to get a contract.
That is very true… But I do think some team (s) will see if they can get him for very cheap… And if he doesn’t work out, then no big deal….
No team.
No chance.
AC would never sign for cheap.
Career over.
BTW Can we move on from Carlos Baerga as a great and reliable source? He created the whole Arson Judge fiasco. He was a Heyman source. He was wrong on Correa, still insisting he was signing with the Mets.
His tweet on the Correa situation was almost verbatim copy from another person’s tweet from an hour earlier.
Lauer to Baltimore for Westburg. Then Winkers and Urias to Boston for Bello. Get it done .
I don’t see that Bello return being something Boston would go for.
There are other starting pitching options who are better…
If you include Correa’s salary last year and the annual value of his 6 year deal,
White Sox signed Jake Marisnick last week to a minor league deal. I don’t think I’ve seen that posted here yet.
Cueto makes so much sense for that young rotation! Great veteran leadership not that sandy doesn’t already have it going but I see him providing a lot of insight to those young guys! Love me some Johnny one of the most exciting guys to watch even in the latter stages of his career!