Three things to watch around the baseball world as we head towards the weekend….
1. Non-tender deadline day:
One of the busiest days of the offseason calendar, today at 7pm CT is the deadline for teams to issue contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Several dozen new free agents will be created today as clubs pass on retaining some of their arb-eligibles, and we’re in for a flurry of other related moves — trades to clear roster space, and at least a few contract agreements with players and teams avoiding a future arbitration hearing.
Matt Swartz’s annual projection model for MLB Trade Rumors gives some idea about what these arb-eligible players are set to earn next season, and naturally several of the names on that list have already reached agreements, been released, designated for assignment, or traded in the six weeks since Matt originally published his projections. For an idea of which players might be a little nervous today, here is MLBTR’s list of potential non-tender candidates.
2. The Braves and White Sox swing a deal:
In case you missed it late last night, the Braves and White Sox got things rolling on non-tender day moves by announcing an intriguing five-for-one trade. Aaron Bummer is now part of the Atlanta bullpen, while the Sox picked up five players — right-hander Michael Soroka, left-hander Jared Shuster, infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake and minor league right-hander Riley Gowens. In one fell swoop, Chicago added some badly-needed depth to its rotation and middle infield, while moving a reliever who has a notable injury and who posted a 6.79 ERA over 58 1/3 innings in 2023. That said, Bummer’s advanced metrics (such as a 3.72 SIERA) were far more favorable to the southpaw’s performance, and the Braves clearly wanted to do some roster-pruning in advance of today’s non-tender deadline. Lopez (projected $3.9MM) and Soroka ($3MM) are both eligible for arbitration, so Atlanta managed to get some value for the two players rather than non-tendering them for nothing.
3. Ohtani’s adorable dog:
If Shohei Ohtani wasn’t enough of a viral sensation already, he gained even more buzz during last night’s announcement of the AL MVP Award. Winning unanimous MVP honors for the second time in your career is one thing, but when you win the award with your best canine friend by your side for a high-five (high-paw?), the internet is going to take notice. Somewhere, front office staffers are quickly googling lists of the best dog parks in their cities, searching for any sort of edge in Ohtani’s free agent sweepstakes.
Nice Braves basically got something for Goodwill donations
Yea, they got an unsold item from last summers White Sox garage sale.
If they fail to mention the best dog parks in negotiations, it would be a “fopaw”
Thank you for this.
“Arf”…she said. Darn quivering doylies…..
So….Japan is out?
Come on ,Chris don’t be so “moderate”.
Miggie can’t eat that much sushi….or….
Can he?
What?
yes, doilies.
Cease is next? For 8 players?
The Ohtani syndrome continues. MLB’s marketing money can’t go to waste so he wins mvp when his team clearly sucked. So much garbage with MLB now.
So that’s weird, I didn’t know that MVP was a team award?
It’s not, but I have seen in the past where a deserving player wasn’t considered. With one of the main reasons being, according to the pundits, that the player was on a terrible team.
I’ve never seen that situation. This debate takes place every year.
Before Trout and Ohtani became head and shoulders above the field being on a postseason team was important. The criteria for awards has changed since WAR and statcast came along. We know longer consider wins for the Cy Young
A good example is Alex Rodriguez, he won in 2003 on a horrible Rangers team.
dpsmith22 — I don’t get this take at all. Corey Seager (MVP runner-up) had a fantastic year despite missing some time to injury, and an incredible postseason run (that shouldn’t factor into MVP voting), but Ohtani was 3.1 bWAR better than the runner-up. Think about that.
To put that into perspective, Pete Alonso finished 8th in NL MVP voting and had a 3.2 bWAR. Ohtani was a Pete Alonso better than the next best AL player in 2023.
Correction: Alonso finished 18th in voting
do, your definition of MVP clearly is quite different from voters’, which of course is fine. It’s a subjective evaluation. I agree with the voters.
Get help
I heard Ohtani’s dog can roll over and drive a car.
As long as he roll the car over….
When are you hiring that Ohtani dedicated reporter? I’m on the edge of my seat for all the minor details of Ohtani. What did he eat for breakfast this morning?
I asked in a chat about that. Tim said they scrapped it because there was considerably less Japanese language news than expected. Shohei is extremely private
It’s hard to get excited by Lopez in the middle infield. Sox fans have seen him often with Royals, and I’m not aware of a single one who thought he’d be the solution to the Sox long-term problem at second base.
Many Braves homers are aghast that they traded Lopez. As if they just traded Albies for Bummer.
No, but Shewmake could be. He has played both short and second in the minors, and is a plus defender with some good contact and pop. Lopez was a fan fav in Atlanta because he was great bench depth, and always did something exciting when he got playing time, but he’s a bench guy.
Non tender deadline, one of the sneaky great days of every mlb off-season for all MLB diehards.
Sho come meet Rocco go guys will be best buddies
Ohtani choosing a destination based on the local dog parks would be a thousand times funnier than Mike Hampton choosing Colorado because of the school system.
Non tender Ty France lets gooo
If you want the best city for your dog you choose san diego. It’s science.
With a dog, it’s more of a high four. I trained my dog to do it, too.
Not a bad return for Bummer, who is kind of injury-prone, but a solid lefty for the pen. Two of the guys are former first rounders. Soroka, who knows and Lopez can’t hit. But overall, not bad.
That is a cute puppy.