As the MLB offseason continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Arbitration hearings start today:
Twenty-two players did not reach an agreement on their 2024 salary with their club on or before the day figures were were exchanged ahead of arbitration. Some agreements could still be reached to avoid hearings — Casey Mize, Cionel Perez and Tommy Edman have already done so with the Tigers, Orioles and Cardinals, respectively — but many will head to a hearing where a panel of three arbiters will choose either the player’s or team’s submitted figure for the upcoming season. Outfielder Adolis Garcia ($6.9MM) and the Rangers ($5MM) have the largest spread between their submitted figures, while the figures put forth for Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($19.9MM and $18.05MM) are the highest of any player with an unresolved case. Click here for MLBTR’s full list of figures exchanged between teams and players.
2. Incoming 40-man roster moves:
A host of agreements were agreed to over the weekend, led by a pre-debut extension for Tigers infielder Colt Keith. Meanwhile, the free agent market saw the Cubs and Hector Neris, the Mets and Adam Ottavino, the A’s and Alex Wood, as well as the Royals and Adam Frazier all come together on one-year deals on the free agent market. Each of those five teams will need to make a corresponding roster move to clear space for their newly-signed player on the 40-man roster in the near future. Commonly, teams will simply designate another player for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster, though occasionally a team will work out a minor trade to pick up a player who does not require a roster spot in exchange for a player who does. One such example occurred just last week, when the Rangers shipped outfielder J.P. Martinez to Atlanta in a deal that made room for right-hander David Robertson on the 40-man roster.
3. Bullpen market thinning:
The market for relief arms has been very active since top-of-the-market southpaw Josh Hader landed in Houston on a five-year, $95MM deal earlier this month. This weekend proved to be no exception as two of the final remaining established set-up men coming off successful seasons, Neris and Ottavino, both reached agreements for the 2024 campaign. Even as options available in free agency dwindle, there remain some interesting arms clubs could look to sign. The left-handed relief class is highlighted by the likes of Wandy Peralta and Brad Hand at this point in the winter, while former Astros hurlers Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek are among the best right-handed options remaining. Teams looking for impact at the back of the bullpen could also turn to the trade market, where closers such as Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase and Boston’s Kenley Jansen are rumored to be available, to varying extents.
Don’t they have different dates for each player? I’d like to know if today is Adolis’s day.
Adonis Garcia single handedly made that franchise at least 10 times the revenue on the 2 million difference. Pay the man!
I would have assumed Adonis Garcia would be too busy posing on instagram and such, pretty boy that he must be…
Adolis Garcia, on the other hand, absolutely deserves a raise
Adonis Garcia is his brother that used to play for the Braves.
I was wondering if he knew that or not. Couldn’t tell.
I think we all knew who Jimmy was talking about.
Kind of you to publicly point out an obvious autocorrection. I hope it helps you feel better today.
That impacts arb 2 and arb 3, though.
They are going to “pay the man” – only question is, how MUCH are they going to pay the man. But don’t worry, Jimmy, the man’s getting paid. Very handsomely, too, I might add.
Thought james paxton would have made his contract official by now. What’s the hold up?
@dodgerskingsfan
Working out how much will be deferred to 2045.
You should do a better job of storing that joke in a container… it’s gotten stale.
@Canuckleball
Oh, I see you’re one of those who’s feelings are easily hurt.
Welcome to the real world!
I don’t think you hurt his feelings, he just thought your joke was lame. Sounds like you may be the one with the hurt fee fees.
@Sid Bream Speed Demon
Canuckleball took the time to write out a reply about a post he said is stale. Tell me again, would you put any value or time out of your day (given that time is money) to post a reply if you didn’t have a strong feeling against what I said? Clearly, he’s hurt enough to need to defend his strong feelings. And you’re here too defending it so I’ll assume your feelings are hurt too.
As for me, I’m thick skinned. I’ve had a few people on here say they will mute me because they don’t like me. Honestly, why they would even feel the need to tell me that is quite ridiculous and telling that they need emotional support as they can’t control their emotions.
@Matt_Angel_Bronco_Laker
Because you said so? Okay, I guess so. LOL!
They call this shadow projection. You pointed out how he took time out of his day to write a post (30seconds?) then you wrote an essay in defense of yourself. You probably just haven’t been on these boards a lot lately because that joke is used every article several times. That’s all they meant.
@Rishi
Is shadow projecting the new made-up word to defend your argument? I get it. It hurts. Man up and move on.
Rishi: I agree. Yes, the deferral comments are way to commonplace. Then again so are the “trash can” comments, yet they are still popping up. The machismo of these comments are alright for a time. However, after awhile people need to realize that it’s run its course (they’re not comical/humorous anymore) and it’s time to move on.
Well you could just look it up but you perhaps sounded like a rather busy guy when you said he took time out of his day to reply so it must really matter to him. Honestly I think most people are on here out of boredom. Like I’m bored with commenting about this. Now I see what you mean about not wanting to waste time on something you don’t care about. You shouldn’t care either. I wasn’t insulting you. Freddie Freeman hugs circa 2021. No hard feelings playa.lol
@Prospectnvstr
That’s a you problem not a me problem. I don’t worry if you plan to read AND react to my post. Until people understand that basic fact, they’ll continue to be triggered by words. LOL!
I googled it and found one website that defined it, so yes, it seems to be a made-up word to justify someone’s hurt feelings.
medium.com/@01explorer/the-world-of-shadow-project….
With shadow projection, we see others as evil, as greedy, as lustful or destructive in whatever way, while we fail to see the relationship between their so-called evil and our own.
Well that’s a poor definition. Certainly not calling you evil or even anything. It’s certainly not made up. It’s a psychological term in great use for 100 years. It simply means sometimes we behave in a way that we aren’t aware of and then we see it in other people or groups and get triggered by it. It has to do with unconscious behaviors. We react (unaware) to rejected aspects of ourselves through other people who often aren’t even doing what we say they are. The boy who cried racism comes to mind. So do many (probably all) wars. It actually explains about everything in human history really but it’s quite complex to grasp in 2 minutes. All I can say is the biggest mystery of all is the human psyche. I guess you didn’t find it because the correct term is likely psychological projection or just projection.Back to baseball
the Pirates will also have to make a corresponding move once Chapman signs his contract
I just want to see NYY finish up their bullpen this week with whatever scraps are left. I’ve given up on anything else from them as it looks like they’re serious about not going over the threshold too much. What you see is what we’re getting I think.
They bring Wandy back into the fold and I’m confident going in.
Is Cashman waiting for the run on relievers ending in the hopes of getting a better price? He needs to ante up and bring Keynan Middleton back. It would be nice to compliment the big trades with moves to round out the roster.
I’m not sure what Cashman is doing. Considering what the report was versus what Neris actually signed for, it looks like Cashman has no intention of addressing the bullpen.
I would go with Wandy over Middleton. Middleton has more of an injury history and with Wandy you know exactly what you’re going to get.
Blue Jays will “win” yet lose as they offered too much. Vlad Jr. will be a non-tender candidate next year if his two year decline continues at the same pace.
Teams have a formula to determine how much to offer arb-eligible players. It’s not like they’re pulling numbers out of thin air to present to the player. The same applies to player agents. Offer too little and the players take them to arb resulting in a guaranteed loss.
He’s in his arbitration years so his pay is guaranteed to rise. After a combined $14 million in raises in 2022, just $3.5 million this year would clearly take into account his recent offensive regression. And since he still has two years of arbitration left, that extra $1.8 million will compound into even higher salaries.
@Heels – I’m not much of a gambling man but I would take some action on that prediction. I’ll agree his 1.002 OPS in 2021 looks like an outlier and he’s seems more like an .800 OPS/115 wRC+ guy, but there’s no way the Jays non-tender him even at $20MM per.
Rhys Hoskins is better than Vlad Jr. Look at what he signed for.
Click that Vlad Jr. BR link and discover how bad Vlad Jr. has become. Negative 1.5 D-WAR. Look at the images in Google of Vlad Jr. The only growth is Vlad’s widening torso and lower half which now looks like a farm animal.
Non-tender, lmao
No one is expecting Oakland to do much but their bullpen is starting to look rock solid. I think the A’s will make the wildcard as the Astros, rangers and mariners are gonna beat up on each other so much this year they’ll take the foot off the gas for A’s games and Oakland will squeeze in with an 83-79 record. Andujar, Wood and Newcombe all to have bounce back years, get flipped for 6 prospects and the A’s are sitting pretty for a Vegas dynasty
Hope Krall and India meet in the middle (about $3.6MM) and avoid the hearing.
Krall signed Suter for $3.7MM this year and has a $3.5MM option on Maile for 2025. I view India’s service in 2023 as valuable as either of those deals.
Moving forward, I suspect trades will be the most noteworthy announcements surrounding relief pitching.