As we eagerly await the return of baseball games later this week, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Solano signing could be made official:
The Twins signed Donovan Solano to a major league deal yesterday, further adding to what was already a deep position player group. The signing is reportedly pending a physical and has yet to be announced. As Spring Training has kicked into gear, however, the turnaround on the signing being made official could become shorter. (For example, Elvis Andrus’s deal with the White Sox was announced the day after being initially reported.) The Twins will need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to officially add Solano, but with both Chris Paddack and Royce Lewis expected to miss significant time to open the season, sending either player to the 60-day IL would clear a spot without needing to designate someone for assignment. Presumably, a big league deal with the right-handed-hitting Solano will rule out a match between the Twins and formerly rumored target Yuli Gurriel.
2. Outfield market update
The outfield market has thinned further over the past week as Robbie Grossman signed with the Rangers late last week while Tyler Naquin agreed to a minor league deal with Milwaukee yesterday. Of course, Jurickson Profar remains unsigned and tops not only the outfield market, but the entire free agent market at this point in the offseason. Looking beyond Profar, though, there are few players remaining who seem like strong bets to receive major league deals at this point. Potentially interesting fliers remain on the market such as Albert Almora, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Ben Gamel, but none of those players seem clearly better than Naquin, who had to settle for a minor league deal.
3. MLBTR Live Chats
Yesterday, MLBTR welcomed former MLB hitting coach Rick Eckstein for a live chat with readers, the transcript of which you can read here. Today, we’re excited to welcome former major league pitcher and longtime international scout Ryan Sadowski, who will be conducting a live chat of his own with readers this morning. Sadowski made the big leagues in 2009 as a member of the Giants and made six starts for the club, pitching to a 4.45 ERA (97 ERA+) across 28 1/3 innings of work. Following his stint in the big leagues, Sadowski headed overseas, where he pitched in the KBO for three seasons, logging a 4.03 ERA in 460 innings abroad. Since retiring as a player, Sadowski has worked as an international scout with the KBO’s Kia Tigers and as the director of international scouting for the KBO’s Lotte Giants. Be sure to tune in later today at 10am CT for Sadowski’s live chat.
Meanwhile, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco will be conducting his own weekly chat, following yesterday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams (transcript here). Should you have any remaining unanswered questions about your favorite team or the league in general as the baseball world gears back up for the spring, you can follow this link to submit a question in advance, and that same link will take you to the chat once it begins at 5pm CT this evening.
Boras definitely misread the market on Profar.
I was going to post the exact same thing. At this point, Boras is probably advising his client to hang tight as injuries are coming from Spring Training and the WBC. We’ve seen this playbook from Boras before. I would not advise this risky playbook for any player.
Boras can only do what his client tells him to do. While I’m sure he advised him to opt out, we don’t know if there were offers Profar passed on, teams he told Scott he wouldn’t play for, conditions he wouldn’t accept etc.
The one thing I bet Scott did misread is the Yankees unwillingness to cross the next luxury tax line. Wish one of these guys was more like their father, George. Would love to see Stienbrenner v. Cohen spending new york into oblivion.
@rogue I’ve been wondering about Profar’s fit on potentially competitive team because he had a career year last year and was basically an okay, but not great, everyday LF. If you look at how inconsistent he’s been over the course of his career, I think a lot of teams with playoff hopes would be hesitant to just hand him LF for 162 games.
Where I’m going with all that is like you said, we don’t know what Profar has passed on or what situation he wants. He might be stuck in this weird limbo of not really being good enough to get everyday money or playtime from competitors, but also not wanting to play for/not getting enough money from a rebuilding club.
For what it’s worth, I still think he’s going to be able to get the $6.5M he left on the table. Someone is going to eventually sign him.
I’ve wondered about that in the past how things would have gone if George Steinbrenner was still alive with Cohen doing what he’s doing now. Would be very interesting I think.
Any Yankees fans want to weigh in?
Why would a rebuilding club consider Profar when the best you can hope for is average? Teams won’t even consider average if looking for help at the trade deadline. His contract won’t even be tradeable.
If he ends up taking a smaller one year deal and he plays as well as he did last year, I think you can totally trade him and the remaining few million owed at the deadline for something. Rays acquired David Peralta at the deadline last year and that’s a similar situation. At the deadline even average players have some value.
Completely different situation because of his upside but Gallo was awful last year and was making a bunch of money and NYY was able to trade him for something.
Pro far is definitely not worth it the Yankees have eternal options
Eternal??? As in forever options? 🙂
For. Ev. Er!
Well it feels like Hicks has been around forever and is going to be around forever.
Divine Diggs
Profar a great clubhouse guy but he’s asking for too much when he’s average
Profar could have made 7.5M to play for a contender. Guess he doubted he could replicate his year last year which was good but had red flags and wanted to get paid while he could.
I posted this awhile back, when Profar became an every day player he changed. He lost his youthful sense of joy for an entitled sense of arrogance.
You notice it with his interactions with opposing fans, strike zone arguments with Umps and situations with opposing players.
Then he opts out of his contract, demanding B to B+ level player money/year contract while he’s a C class (generously) player.
Now, he’s going to find himself either competing for a roster spot or getting much less money/years then he would of with the Padres.
He’s probably butt hurt because Manny checked him that one time.