Omar Narvaez signed a one-year, $8MM deal (with a $7MM player option for 2024) with the Mets just before Christmas, and Will Sammon of The Athletic shed a little more light on the market for the veteran backstop before he eventually wound up in New York. Sammon notes that the Giants strongly considered a move for Narvaez while the Twins, Tigers and Reds all had varying levels of interest.
The Giants have since inked Roberto Perez, the Reds are set with the trio of Tyler Stephenson, Curt Casali and Luke Maile while the Twins signed Christian Vazquez to the position. The Tigers are an interesting one though, as they’ve only added Triple-A backstop Donny Sands in a trade with the Phillies. They’re set to use some combination of Eric Haase, Jake Rogers and Sands in 2023 but it’s interesting to hear they were at least interested in a higher profile addition there this winter. If they do still look to add an external catcher, Gary Sanchez, Robinson Chirinos and Kevin Plawecki are the remaining notable catchers on the market.
Here’s some more bits and pieces from around baseball:
- Joey Gallo could be set to see a bit of time at first base in 2023. As Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic noted in a recent mailbag, Gallo could well be the back up first baseman to Alex Kirilloff. That’s not to say Gallo will be on the bench, as the former Ranger, Yankee and Dodger will get plenty of reps in the outfield, but if Kirilloff’s struggles extend into 2023 the Twins could utilize Gallo a fair bit at the position. He rates well as a defender in the outfield, and has made just one appearance at first since 2018 but he’s also graded out solidly defensively at first in his time there.
- Rockies owner Dick Monfort made headlines recently when he boldly stated he thought the Rockies could play .500 ball this season. That’d be a big ask in a competitive NL West, and the Rockies have done little to improve on their 68-94 record in 2022. Whatever record they wind up with this year, Monfort – in an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post – said they wouldn’t go down the rebuilding path: “I guess the connotation on rebuilding is you just get rid of everybody. You try to draft low, which we’re not [going to do]. We’re not trying to get the first pick. We’re not going to tank. We never have, never will,” Monfort said.
- With the Padres adding Xander Bogaerts on a long-term deal and still having Manny Machado under contract for at least the next season, the left side of their infield appears set. Of course, that led to an expectation that Fernando Tatis Jr. would head to the outfield moving forward. That still looks to be the case, although the player didn’t commit to a position and said he’s been working out in both the infield and outfield this winter (via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Tribune-Review). It’s been a challenging few seasons for Tatis, but he also added that he’s feeling “as close to 100%” as he’s been the past few seasons after dealing with wrist and shoulder injuries, and is expecting to be a full participant in spring training.
- Sammon’s report in The Athletic also includes details on the Mets plans for Tylor Megill and David Peterson. Both players figure to be in and around the team at some stage over the course of the season, but Sammon reports that the team’s ideal scenario would be to have both players go to Triple-A to start the season and work as starters there, rather than starting the season in the big league bullpen. Of course, injuries in the spring could force one or both of them into rotation spots to begin the season anyway, but it seems the Mets are hoping to avoid using them in relief roles to begin the season.
Twins skipper will limit Gallo ABs to keep him from matching his personal best strikeout season of 213.
I give Monfort props for trying, I guess. But what did Yoda say?
You must unlearn what you have learned.
That’s not all he said though. He also indirectly criticized the Padres spending. Curiously, his team has the 16th largest market area, while SD had the 26th. Perhaps he understands baseball fans will be wise enough to discern how he’s not doing his fanbase any favors. Terrible owners list top 5…..
So Tatis will play wherever they tell him…shocking.
Actually, it is a bit shocking.
Tatis Jr. has heretofore listened to no one but his inner self, and was essentially pompous and in charge. What, was Jayce Tingler going to pierce his arrogant veil?
When a team presence like Manny Machado could not get through to the guy….it took a year of stupid-imposed humbling to shatter his self-importance.
We shall see if and how long it lasts.
However, after being cheered and celebrated by a huge San Diego fan gathering of hero-worshippers today….I betcha his humility won’t last for long.
He’ll be fine if he remembers that the team needs to be in the forefront. He needs to do his talking through his play, nothing else will speak as loudly…
Even if they haven’t told him (and I’m sure they did), the signing of XB to an unbelievable overpay, would make it obvious that he won’t be the SS going forward. That he wouldn’t commit to a position leads me to believe just the opposite. He’s refusing to accept the change and is still thinking he can convince them he’s the SS going forward. Same. Selfish. Prima Donna.
stymeedone…..you have no idea what you’re talking about and sound ridiculous.
jbc1972 you are trolling right?
He has never played while “juicing” don’t be ridiculous.
He was great the first week he started in MLB and consistently great from that point forward.
One “offseason” mistake trying to speed up recovery and all the haters try to make it sound like he’s the next Barroid Bonds and been injecting steroids since 2018.
They let machado walk next season and XB heads to 3rd or Tatis does
LonnieB: Perhaps you meant this by your comment, but it’s not the organization’s choice to let Machado walk. It’s a player option, so ultimately it depends on whether Machado chooses to try the open market instead of his guaranteed money. Although I believe he will, it would not be at all surprising if he doesn’t not exercise that option and remains in SD.
“Mistake”? Hilarious. Just an oopsie, taking a clearly banned substance, while having a father who also got caught, and an agent he could have checked this with, never mind MLB’s hotline that steers players through this issue.
Tatis is a cheat. Live with it.
From the comments from their owner and from Machado himself at their fan fest yesterday, it seems like they would like to get a deal done to make him a Padre for the rest of his career.
Read several articles about him becoming the first player to ever sign two $300 million deals. Maybe they do another 11 or 12 year deal to bring down the AAV?
MrPadre that’s such a naive take. You think he juiced one time and got caught the only time he did it? Come on now. He’s probably been juicing for years. He’s the type. Selfish prima Donna that doesn’t respect the game. Must piss off his dad like crazy since he was just the opposite
Sheesh Serge. You must have come out of your mama when you were 40 years old. Were you ever young? Honest question. You ever make a mistake in your life? Ever had youthful arrogance? Or are you just a curmudgeonly troll?
A mistake? Try several. It’s a pattern and the big contract does not help. It will probably have the opposite effect than keeping him on an even keel.
So SD will regret that and will try to push it off on the first large market team that will take it before the deadline after the inevitable next foul up that hurts the team.
It’s sad because they could really have something with that roster. They don’t need locker room problems.
When you don’t know what you’re talking about, Tipsy (which is appropriate) shut the h up and show respect to those who do.
Reds, yes he has made a lot of mistakes. I think he has surrounded himself with stupid people that don’t have his best interests at heart. It was stupid of him to surround himself with them and listen to them above the team.
In my opinion after riding the bike with his buddies and using a banned cream to help heal faster (likely on the advice of above mentioned stupid people) he has come to the reality that he has been listening to the wrong people.
People love him here in SD even after all that. He is a likable kid and a superstar performer. I think him getting the shoulder done (his people didn’t want him to and the team did) it was a good first step in listening to the right people.
All the people that will throw horrible and hateful slurs at him this year to make themselves feel better about their pathetic lives would want him on their team in a heartbeat.
Serge, you have not shown you know what you are talking about and you get respect when you show it to others.
He’s a cheat, which is a fact, nothing hateful about it. And no, I don’t want him on my team.
Who are you to judge? No one.
Jack, you would take him on your team in a heartbeat. And I would give a rest to the hate, it has to be exhausting.
Gallo will have a comeback year and win a gold glove.
Montfort is delusional, unless every pitcher goes well beyond their potential, Bryant and Cron fight it out for MVP and Zac Veen wins ROY…so hard no.
It kills me the Mets are considering letting Peterson and Megill spoil on the vine in the minors…that must be a NY thing.
I was happy that my Tigers didn’t spend big on a catcher…I like what they did there keeping Haase and Rogers and adding Sands…would have liked to see more on other fronts (i.e. go trade for GORMAN!!!).
San Diego should trade off Tatis and get a grab bag of prospects they can use now and down the road. He needs a wake up call. Send him to my Tigers for Torkelson and some combo of young pitching that is NOT Skubal (Manning, Mize, Jobe, Madden, Flores, Brieske, Wentz???). Let me have my dreams people!
Such a bad take on tatis. Kid has the chance to be a top 3 offensive player in the mlb at 24 and his 162 game averages say he already has been with “one arm” according to his own quotes. To sell low on him now would be the dumbest idea I’ve heard in awhile.
LOL at the “one arm” part. Talk about being dramatic. Oh, and why should we believe anything Tatis says at this point?
It’s a Mickey Mantle reference……
I think i just threw him a compliment for his skills, while pointing out he needs
to stop making stupid decisions. I dont suggest that my favorite team go trade for players I wouldn’t want playing there. Sell low? How is Torkelson and a package of pitchers selling low? I don’t see that, especially since SD just traded their whole farm system away
Padres would likely not trade Tatis for less than they gave up for Soto. Torkelson and anyone else you named is not even in the ballpark.
Tatis is not Soto. He’s good but not that good and coming off a PED suspension and various other issues he’s caused the team. His value is still high, but not like it was before all that.
But who’s buying stock in him playing like he did when he was juicing? Not me. He’s gonna fall back to earth in a big way. Which compounds the attitude issues. When you’re a superstar, you get more room to be a jerk.
Tatis Jr. and Kyrie Irving can always do stand-up philosophical
trash talking at clubs in Las Vegas together.
He juiced once during the offseason. He never played while juicing. Tatis may regress from his top 3 player in baseball level, but he is still going to be top 20 in 2023.
How can anyone say that with any certainty? He was caught once which means most likely he was using many more times than once.
MLGraham
I agree. He turned 24 in January 2023. Who among us did not do some stupid s—t at age 22 or 23? People really do use steroids to treat jock itch and ringworm, they are just yeast infection-like fungus. And if you think he was lying about that, which is certainly likely, there is still no evidence that he used steroids before his cycle injury. So yes Tatis deserves getting mocked in these posts, and yes he was an immature 23 year old, but I would bet that for the period of 2023-2025 he will be in the top three for NL home runs. Call him stupid or a cheater, but I am willing to bet that you will also be calling him an all-star and a silver slugger winner.
Sammy has record for most home runs in three consecutive seasons. No one today calls him a silver slugger or all star. However I do hear cheater and “bleach-er” whenever I hear his name mentioned.
“It kills me the Mets are considering letting Peterson and Megill spoil on the vine in the minors…that must be a NY thing.”
They already have five starters and Megill for sure needs some more seasoning after coming back from injury last year. But both will get plenty of chances as there will probably be injuries and also, the Mets are rumored to be considering a six man rotation for at least part of the year.
Hate to see them in the minors though. Peterson has been good enough to be a number 5 at least the last few years. My Tigers went through a ton of SP last year so I get having depth starters on hand. I get your point on Megill…same idea with Brieske for the Tigers. To me Peterson has proven himself at the major league level and it would suck for his development to be sent down. Nothing to prove there. 6 man rotation makes sense, especially with Verlander and Scherzer having so many miles on their arms.
Mets are keeping them because they’re smart. The Mets also have two pitchers over 40. While Verlander is ever the durable one, Scherzer has had some injuries over the past couple years. But rounding out their rotation is presumably Senga (an unknown), who will be moving ostensibly from 5-days rest to 4, Carrasco, who is aging and has had durability issues in the recent past, and Quintana, who has also been sidelined for lat issues.
While I *am not suggesting* the Mets rotation is any more injury prone than most other rotations, I do think it warrants the Mets keeping the rotation bolstered in the event injuries reoccur. It’s certainly one of the best rotations in MLB, but it’s not like these are all 25-year-olds with no injury history.
I believe that’s why the Yankees were a bit silly for trading off their depth also – they’re in the same boat with Montas, Rodon, & Sevy.
Find me a team that made it through a season without any injuries to any of their opening day SP and I’ll agree with your point about the Mets.
Padres roster looks incredible. Must be nice being able to spend without consequence. Let’s go A’s
@ Big Yo. The consequences of Seidler’s increased investment in the team has been record number of season ticket sales/sellouts and revenues, and an energized fanbase that loves the team. Go A’s.
I like the A’s in the same way that I like the Rays. They manage to give huge spenders a run for their money on a shoestring budget from time to time.
The Rockies are probably my least favorite team for the same reason. Always bad; never rebuilding. Or building. Or moving.
Didn’t the Padres have to cut off season ticket sales because California law requires there to be a certain percentage of tickets available for single game sales? Something like 10% can’t be sold to season ticket holders. That is incredible to sell that many tickets before the season even begins..
Turns out trying to win is profitable..
No ad for Ukrainian women with this article?
The broker is a JW or Adventist. No work on Saturday.
Hey be careful with that, it definitely sounds like you have some interest.
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.
The Rockies have been doing a pretty good job of tanking even without trying.
Actually not. They usually finish around 10th worst in baseball. Worst they’ve ever been is 3rd. One of only a very few teams that has never had the worst record in baseball or 100 losses.
One of very few teams that have never won a World Series either…
Yup! Part of that’s being cursed with their division. But they do appear to be comfortable bouncing around between decent and bad but not terrrible.
I can agree with that. Must be torture for the fans
They could try to be a little more like the Orioles, who play in arguably the toughest division in baseball. They became a PO contender last year with good young prospects among other improvements. The Rox will need to be serious about improving their roster and not make stupid moves like overpaying for players like Bryant. He’s had back injuries that kept him out of the cubs and Giants lineups. that cost him big chunks of time on the IL. How could the Rox not know that before signing him? His back problems have carried over into his brief time in Colorado.
This is the perfect example of how inept eppler really is. This is last year of a 3 year $40mm contract for Mccann and he will make $24mm this year. So he Paid orioles $17mm to take McCann and got absolutely nothing in return. Then he goes out and signs a “has been” for 1yr/$8mm who hit .11 higher with 1 more HR than McCann last year. So he shedded McCann’s $24mm contract for $25mm. Oh yea and he didn’t even upgrade this lineup that went completely limp at the end of the year when it counted. Mets logic. Good on you Mate!!!
If you have a swimming pool you could empty it then instead of posting opinions here you could yell them into the empty swimming pool.
As an Os fan, stoked we got McCann. And on the cheap. In general, love what the FO is doing here in Baltimore. That said, the strategy of shuffling a handful of AAAA grade catchers between Baltimore and Norfolk was driving me batty. IMO, McCann backing up Rutschman equals stability.
Mccann wasn’t very good.
He wasn’t fun to watch. Didn’t hit, was inferior defensively to his backup in every way.
I hope it works out for you. Beat the Yankees.
McCants offense reverted to how he played when he was in Detroit…where he was released. Good backup though, miscast as a regular.
A wise man once said If you keep your mouth shut other people will not find out how stupid you are.
True words were never spoken some thing that Colorado Rockies owner should practice.
Don’t know what your talking about with the reference to Ukranian women, but I would say they could possibly the most beautiful women in the world with the the Euro women in the adjoining Eastern European countries coming in a close second.
Many Western Models are recruited from Ukraine. It’s kind of like the Dominican player pool for baseball recruitment.
…and a cess pool for corruption and money laundering.
You’re both correct.
No, that’s Russia
Trumper
If the Padres take HSK out of their infield, it will be a grave mistake. Ringworm may have range, but screwed up a lot of easy plays repeatedly.
His range says “outfield.”
They could have acquire a 1B, like Abreu. Nope. Not expensive enough. Instead, they give XB his own brinks truck, but forgot to tell him that he’s changing positions. Now, Kim gets moved from SS, making Cronenworth move to 1B, where his bat doesn’t play as well. The whole infield is weaker. When Manny opts out, they can shift everyone all over again
The same problem the Mets will have. They and the Padres have gone out and collected as many top players as they can no matter if it gets them three SS or a dozen OFers. Good luck to Buck and Bob sorting out their respective rosters while managing prima donne multi-millionaires.
The Mets won’t have a position problem. Just the opposite. They’ve got a sensational 4th OFer in McNeil whenever the lineup’s better by shifting him from 2B to LF. They have two players in Escobar and Guillorme who can fill in at 2B, and if Baty excels he takes 3B or LF (probably the latter) either moving Escobar to the bench or replacing Canha as the starter in LF—a solid move given Canha’s more a good 4th OFer on a contender at this stage of his career.
No one’s out of position (odd, for the Mets), no one’s being sabotaged. What they could really use is a backup who can fill in for the 20 games Lindor’s going to be missing at SS. Strange, not to have a legit backup SS glove on a 26 man roster or in AAA.
@JackStrawb: Guillorme can fill in at shortstop. He’s a legitimate glove there and not a bad hitter. No power, but that’s OK for a backup
Nimmo, Guillorme and Cahna drove pitchers batty with their plate discipline in the first half. I’ll take Guillorme on my bench starting once or twice a week above any other reserve infielder in the league.
Cronenworth’s bat over the past 3 seasons would have tied him for the 10th best 1B bat. That plays just fine.
His defense makes him even more valuable now that the extreme shift is not possible anymore.
He can take over 1B for the Angels anytime. A 119 OPS+ the last 3 years with great defense would be a huge step up from what we have ben subjected to. Last season we saw a .217/.271/.343/.615 slashline and a 65 OPS+ from 1B. Over the last two seasons Walsh had a 107 OPS+ and coming back from the TOS surgery I am not sure what we will see from him.
Montfort owner of ROX owner should watch his own Bobber.
Sir this is a Wendy’s?
I’m kind of surprised the reds were interested in Narvy. They have one of the top 5 catchers in the game and I don’t see Narvaez as a guy that would only catch 40-50 games.
The Reds might see Tyler as a 90-100 game a year catcher. He hasn’t been particularly durable in the minors.
@jack
That is a good point, they might limit his time to try to keep him healthy.
We’re not trying to get the first pick. We’re not going to tank. We never have, never will,” Monfort said.
==============================
They’ve averaged more than 90 losses over the past four seasons. They’ve won one playoff game in past 13 years. And they have never finished 1st in 30 years.
Someone should tell him that they ARE tanking. They just aren’t enjoying the benefit of it.
With all of these ignorant owners thinking that they can put together a winning team better than the bb men they hired to do just that, it’s too bad fans in most bb cities in America can’t do what they do in England when their teams are tanking: Thousands march down the streets towards their team’s stadium letting ownership know they want them out. Then they stage a sit-in in the stands until the owner addresses them, which of they never do. But it does get results. It’s a different situation than it is here. I can’t see the same thing happening in Chicago or California. And even if the fans here did try something like that here it wouldn’t work because the owners don’t care one bit about the fans.
Really did seem like Yankee fans booing Hal S. got him off his arse to sign Rodon.
That’s just it…..they stopped hiring baseball men and started hiring Ivy Leaguers…..
Detroit……smoke and mirrors, head fake….
They’ll be better this year. No way that much can go wrong again! Whole offense tanks and they have to use basically two whole SP staffs (like 10 pitchers). I’m waiting on next year when Mize and Skubal are back and we see how the offence pans out this year and who stays or goes Another year of no playoffs this year though.
I hope you’re right.
The Indians, Twins and Royals improved. The ChiSox can only improve. I don’t think the Tigers will have a better record.
With what the Tigers have done thus far, I tend to agree with you. I don’t think they have gotten better than last year…..
Mets will have great SP depth at AAA with Megill, Peterson & Eliser Hernandez. I think Lucchesi opens the season as the Mets second lefty/long reliever out of the pen.
Jury is still out on Lucchesi. Could happen, but right now he’s a wild card
Was hoping Minassian would sign someone to backup O’Hoppe, Glad he didn’t spend $8 million on this guy.
Please let Tatis ask for a trade in spring.
He’d look good in LF for Toronto. Elite Bat pushing Kiermier to 4th OF and even if Varsho sucks , Tatis is in LF
He’s gotta demand a trade or you’re overpaying for sure and Toronto just can’t do that today
Barriera, Martinez and any other AAA or AA player or 3
Yes I replied to my own comment. Realized I left trade proposal out after the editing expired
Dare to dream I guess, but don’t hold your breath.
The Tigers won’t ever acquire Gary Sanchez. He’s a punk coward.
You got that right….I can still see Yankee Sanchez punching Miggy in the head while moron Castellanos held him down .thinking he was protecting him. .
As long as people attend Rockies games in huge numbers, no need forv Montfort to improve team.
As long as people attend Rockies games in huge numbers, no need forv Montfort to improve team. .
When they gave away Arenado and Story, they lost a lot of followers.