With Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, and Todd Helton officially headed for the Hall of Fame, here are three things around the baseball world we’ll be keeping an eye on throughout the day today:
1. The market for corner bats has begun to heat up:
In an offseason that started out with a relative dearth of offensive talent, a surprising amount of corner bats remain available with just three weeks until Spring Training. That’s begun to change, however, as a pair of deals from that side of the market came together yesterday: first baseman Rhys Hoskins is finalizing a two-year deal with the Brewers, while outfielder/first baseman Joey Gallo landed a one-year pact with the Nationals. Even with that pair of sluggers off the market, plenty of options remain for clubs looking to add a corner bat or DH this winter with Jorge Soler, J.D. Martinez, Justin Turner, and Joc Pederson among the best bats remaining. With teams like the Blue Jays, Padres, and Diamondbacks still in the hunt for a bat in this vein, will the recent signings spur further activity?
2. Angels making moves:
After being among the league’s quieter teams early in the offseason as they watched franchise face and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani depart for Chavez Ravine, the Angels have begun to show signs of life on the free agent market. After landing Robert Stephenson on a three-year deal last week, the club further bolstered their bullpen by reuniting with veteran southpaw Matt Moore on a one-year pact. Adding Stephenson and Moore to the late-inning mix alongside Carlos Estevez creates a strong back-end trio for the Halos, but the club still has plenty of work to do upgrading the starting rotation and lineup if the club hopes to be competitive in its first post-Ohtani season. Fortunately, the club has payroll space to work with. Roster Resource projects the club for a payroll of $172MM in 2024, more than $40MM below the figure they posted last year.
3. Gonzalez DFA resolution:
The Yankees designated outfielder Oscar Gonzalez for assignment last week in a move that cleared space on the 40-man roster for veteran right-hander Marcus Stroman. In doing so, they set off a one-week window to either trade Gonzalez, pass him through waivers or release him. That clock runs out today for Gonzalez, meaning a resolution will be announced shortly. Since waivers are a 48-hour process themselves and today is the final day of his window, it stands to reason that the Yankees placed him on waivers two days ago and will today learn whether he’ll be claimed or clear. Gonzalez slashed a strong .296/.327/.461 in 91 games during his rookie season in 2022 before limping to a paltry .214/.239/.312 line in 180 trips to the plate in 2023. Still, at just 26 years old and only one season removed from quality production, a team in need of help at the outfield corners could look to claim him. Gonzalez has not yet been outrighted during his career, so if he passes through waivers successfully, the Yankees will be able to stash him in the minors as non-roster depth without Gonzalez being able to reject the assignment in favor of free agency.
I’m happy to see that the stove is hot.
Hopefully more action continues before February.
acoss – I’m pretty sure there will be steady action for the next 3 weeks, teams like to have an idea who’ve they got when ST officially opens.
The longer some players wait, the less leverage they’ll have as potential teams will go with another player instead. Every player needs a job, no team needs to sign a specific player.
Fever,
Yeah I agree. Some of these free agents might show a little desperation now that Spring Training is inching closer.
thought Rhys would have been a great fit for them. They are going to have little to no trade assets and will have to overpay to attract free agents. They have an albatross at 3B. They need a lot of help eveywhere.
who is “them”, Angels?
Corner the market? The Dodgers already did that.
With a svelte $313M (so far) payroll. LOL. I grew up a Dodger fan, but can see why haters are saying World Series or bust.
Steve Cohen got raked over the coals for spending that kind of money for nothing; 2024 is going to be an interesting season in LA.
Nukeg,
I think it’s great that the Dodgers are going all in to win a championship. That’s every fans dream for their own team, but at the of the day Dodgers still have to win.
Dodgers fans have been saying “WS or bust” for 7 years straight. Nothing new.
Oscar Gonzalez is a steal of a flyer for teams like A’s etc
Once again site always mentions Joc as a top corner outfielder available but never mentions Rosario who is just as good, probably better. Unless we are only looking at one recent season for Joc and neglecting the others. Why is he even on that list with the other three?
Nick Deeds talks of corner bats, as in, a corner outfielder who can contribute in a noteworthy fashion at the plate. Eddie Rosario has produced 1% below average, 38% below average, and exactly average in his last 3 years at the plate by OPS+.
He’s not a corner outfield bat, he’s a corner outfielder who clearly provides more value through defense then bat. A useful player, yes. A useful bat, not really. At least, not compared to the likes of someone like Joc.
Joey Gallo is a coroner bat.
.169
Gallows humor.
This is just an odd statement to me. Joc has not been some excellent bat except 2022. Rosario couldn’t see in 2022. Let’s throw out this outlier year for both of them for arguments sake and they are very similar players.
Joc ate his way out of an outfield spot about 2 years ago.
Colorado is itching to land Peterson so Denver can boast of having Jocic and a Joc itch.
Well Rishi that may well be because Rosario is listed as a middle infielder (SS, 2nd base) and not an OF’er?? I have not checked but i do not believe he has a lot of time spent as a corner OF’er.
He is talking about Eddie not Amed.
Yeah i just caught that sorry!!
Joc: 116 career OPS+
Rosario: 104 career OPS+
Joc: 111 OPS+ in 2023
Rosario: 100 OPS+ in 2023
Joc: 142 OPS+ in 2022
Rosario: 62 OPS+ in 2022
Joc: 116 OPS+ (three-year average)
Rosario: 91 OPS+ (three-year average)
Not seeing the “as good, probably better” argument you’re pushing.
You’ve picked an odd hill to die on.
I don’t think people understand Rosario. I get he’s not great. 2022 is irrelevant because he couldn’t even see the ball in soft toss before he had eye surgery that year. Besides his 1/2 year on Cleveland he has been a solid player every year. First time in career switching teams, small sample, I’ll let that pass. He only looks like he declined because of that bad half season and a lost season which followed. Snitkers way of using him in 2023 interfered with every hot streak he got on, along with the all star break, which he went into as the hottest player in baseball and came out ice cold. He’s the kind of guy who needs to play every day to get hot. I’m not entirely even sticking up for him as much as I am saying Joc Pedersons is not that good. He’s a worthless defender and a streaky hitter like Rosario. One is a tad underrated and on a tad overrated. Likely because he played in LA.
@Rishi
Rosario isn’t really as great as you try and make him out to be.
wRC+ vs RHP: 101
wRC+ vs. LHP: 90
Overall for his career, he’s had a wRC+ of 102.
Joc Pederson
wRC+ vs RHP: 115
wRC+ vs LHP: 80
Overall for his career, he’s had a wRC+ of 117.
It makes sense that the site would highlight Pederson over Rosario because Pederson is a much better player overall.
“a much better player overall”. Hmmm….Is that why they’ve played the same amount of years basically and have the same WAR? Pedersons actually played longer. They are literally almost identical value wise. You could hardly pick any 2 more closely valued by WAR in the same general time.
At 26yo they shouldn’t be able to stash Gonzalez in the minors. Not that he would make a ton of money in FA, but it’s moves like this that make me support the union over owners. This is something the union needs to address. Let the kid make his own decision at this point.
Every industry/job has rules, we all deal with them. Can’t wear open toe sandals in a commercial kitchen. Sign an NDA to get the promotion. Employees must wash their hands. Etc.
The union doesn’t need to address the issue, people need to decide if they want to work with the rules of the industry that they are in and if not make their independent choice to change jobs/industry.
Hopefully you’re not suggesting that Oscar Gonzalez’ option is to become a line cook or a dishwasher? There’s probably a few kitchens that even have union workers and there’s no chance there would be any disputes raised regarding employee safety and public health issues including proper sanitation in the workplace.
Yes, indeed. The most current CBA includes an often unspoken 4th pathway that teams could elect to use when DFA’ing players. Relinquish the players rights to the team kitchen for dishwashing duties.
An employee being forced to wash their hands and a legal monopoly preventing employees from choosing where they work and actively suppressing earning potential.
These two things are the same.
No one is forced to play major league baseball. It is a choice. No is forced to work at a restaurant. It is a choice.
If someone chooses to exchange labor for an employers pay, they have to follow the employers rules as it is their opportunity that they are providing. Some times the jobs someone chooses limits their options if they decide to make a change I.e. someone signs a non-compete or non-disclosure agreement at a company. If they decide to leave, they might not be able to work at a competitor company for 1 yr+.
Even free markets have rules.
Mo,
Calling MLB, with its antitrust exemption, free market is rather amusing. I’m thankful both MLB and now MiLB players are unionized to push back against ownership.
It’s a nuanced point, I’m not defending owners or bashing unions. I save that for my stand up routine.
Antitrusts protect free markets by preventing monopolies, they aren’t counter to free markets. If a team DFAs a player they have to spend 7 days floating them around the league offering the player services to competitors (I.e. avoiding a monopoly of services). If anything the “unfair” part is the waiver wire where anyone can claim the guy, not the part where he’s relegated in the organization that he chose to sign a contract with under his own free will.
This of course assumes that teams haven’t roofied players to force them to sign contracts.
MLB is a monopoly and use it’s antitrust exemption to stifle competition, even moreso now that it controls the minor leagues fully.
The options of sign with the team that drafted you or wash dishes is a great demonstration that MLB isn’t a free market. Restaurants don’t draft dishwashers, it’s open hiring and competition. A baseball player who is drafted can’t choose to sign with any of the other 29 MLB teams.
Yes, I agree on the constraints that the players face and with MLB being an accepted baseball monopoly but even within accepted monopolies (beyond baseball too) there are regulations checking authority. In the case of baseball is league governance policies, in traditional corp it’s SEC and FTC.
My thought isn’t that players aren’t constrained, it’s that all employees are constrained. Players know the constraints/risks of not performing on a signed contract at time of signing. When I signed my current non-compete I knew I was limiting myself on the backend if I wanted to stay within my industry but change companies. I knew that at time of accepting the position, just like ball players know that the DFA process exists if they don’t perform. Players also know the risks of the current draft process (yes the draft could be improved).
The problem with your example is that you could have declined to sign the non-compete and sought a job with a different company in your industry that does not require a non-compete. You said it yourself, there is more than one company in your industry.
If a baseball player wants to make money in the US, the only option is MLB. When you say that people need to decide if they want to deal with the DFA process before they enter the industry disregards the fact that the industry is one company. And that that one company is the one that has the DFA process, among many other less than desirable policies. Comparing that to other (very less restrictive) policies that some companies deploy normalizes the immense power that MLB holds over its workers.
Yes, some companies might require certain processes during employment, but these are not remotely similar to not being able to choose what area you want to work in. There is no draft for chefs when they finish culinary school. No trade school graduation comes with an offer of one job on the other side of the country, and if decline that one offer, you are starting over in a different field, rendering your x years of education worthless. Labor in sports is a complicated issue but you can’t explain it away saying its the same as having to wash your hands.
I’ll admit it wasn’t my best example, but I think that’s an over simplification of my point. I’m not calling ball players and kitchen staff a 1:1 comparison, I was using a real world example of labor policies. I’m a libertarian by nature, so defending constraint is ironic for me.
The fact that MLB is the only profitable pro league for a player to pursue in the US is not MLBs issue to solve. It is a results based, contracted industry. Yes if someone gets drafted they don’t have flexibility, but almost the entire league is in that boat which creates equality in possibility. Everyone is accountable to their choices and performance regardless of industry. I don’t perform to the standard or rules at my job I’ll get written up or canned. My job would have no obligation to give me a soft landing if I didn’t perform, and they wouldn’t remove my non-compete to help me find a new job. That thought applies to all businesses/employees. Some businesses/industries have harder rules/constraints defining policies and performance repercussions.
Mo, MLB has a virtual monopoly at least in part due to their antitrust exemption. They’ve restricted signing bonuses for amateur players in the US and internationally, as well as posting fees for players from other foreign leagues.
The “equality in possibility” you mention just means everyone is equally constrained, which is not a free market at all.
Also, most of the time someone is let go by a company, the non-compete is no longer applicable. If they don’t want you, they can’t stop you from finding gainful employment at a competitor.
Completely agree that MLB is a monopoly. Those exist all over the country, even though a slogan of capitalism is anti-monopoly. There’s no actual free market. Everything has constraints/regulation/law/policy/guidelines/parameters. There’s also layers to those. Legal layer to operate in and the companies own layer of rules. For what it’s worth my non-compete doesn’t evaporate with termination while others do. Those were the rules of the opportunity I chose to pursue.
Free market just implies consumers have choices. There’s no way to guarantee multiple choices for consumers without over authority, so monopolies are able to naturally exist due to scarcity of options.
As this applies to players, they aren’t in a military draft like selective service. They are entering a baseball draft under free will with known variables as well as constraints. Some opportunities are more rare than others, and stricter policies to protect it are needed. The exclusivity is what implies value. It is a choice to pursue baseball, just like any career path. Some career paths are harder than others to make it in.
If a player passes through waivers, then calling him a stash really isn’t descriptive.
This is the reality of not performing.
@ grnmtnyeti :
1) I’m not sure what benefit you think free agency would afford him. He’s been a free agent before and all he got then was a minor league contract. He was waived by the Guardians in December and the Yankees were the only team that claimed him. And he cleared waivers completely this time around after no one claimed him for their major league roster. Thats the only reason the Yankees are able to “stash” him in the minors.
2) He’s not stuck there forever. A player can now only be outrighted one time at the club’s behest. If he gets outrighted again, he would then be eligible for free agency. This is a huge improvement over the three times a club could do it just a few years ago. So the union has addressed this, at least to some degree.
3) If a high level foreign league like Japan or Korea were to want him, the US team would let him go to pursue that opportunity. Thats standard operating procedure. But its up to his agent to find that alternate opportunity, and there aren’t many of them because those leagues have tight limits on the number of foreign players a team can have.. Otherwise, AAA baseball is still his best chance of getting back to the majors, and his best pay.
Angels 2024 world series champs. Put it on the booooaaard yes, yes!!!
A lot of IFs with the Angels, the biggest if is, if they can stay healthy, they should be a playoff team
Their bullpen is vastly improved now!!!! At least I think it is
It absolutely is. innings 7-9 should be a lot less painful to sit through.
Welcome to the Hall of Pretty Good, Mauer and Todd.
The “Hall” like the Oscars and the Emmy’s ain’t what it used to be.
Todd Helton belongs. Don’t know about Mauer.
If Joe Mauer produced his numbers exclusively as a first baseman he’d be a longshot for Cooperstown. The fact that he complied them in his prime as a solid defensive catcher makes his enshrinement a no-brainer.
It’s not unlike the Hall of Fame argument that has occurred previously with other prime defensive positions including SS, 2B and CF. There’s also been similar concerns regarding relief pitchers including an impactful one like Hoyt Wilhelm who wasn’t used exclusively as a closer or even in the bullpen.
I can MAYBE get down with Helton but I think his defensive prowess was overrated, but that is just me.
Andruw Jones not being in with 10 gold gloves and 400 HR is wild to me.
I have a very strict notion about who should get in and who shouldn’t thought but again, that is just me.
I loved your back to back No-No’s!
Thanks! Truly unbreakable record.
Hudler, I pretty much don’t follow such stuff anymore.
At least Cooperstown only enshrines members who have impacted its industry in a “pretty good” or great way and over a substantial period of time. I wish I could say the same about a certain Hall of Fame in Cleveland. 🙂
Just wait till Cooperstown starts letting basketball players in because of the positive impact they’ve had on sports in general
I suppose MJ’s minor league stats in conjunction with his NBA career qualify him..
Jim Rice Road numbers: .277/.330/.459 and Todd Helton: .287/.386/.469
Good movement yesterday, let’s see more today. P’s & C’s coming and fantasy draft season as well! Woooot!
Pirates should claim Gonzalez for the sake of not forcing their hand by placing Henry Davis back in RF. between Joe and Gonzales, I would breath easier