Here are three things we’re watching around the baseball world today…
1. Pitching market heating up?
There’s less than six weeks to go until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training and still plenty of moves left to be made, meaning the offseason has to pick up momentum soon. Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto seemed to holds things up for a while, then the holidays put things on pause. Now that all that is settled, there’s plenty of smoke starting to appear around guys like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Shota Imanaga and Dylan Cease, meaning things could be about to get hectic.
2. Yankees in the spotlight:
It appears the Yankees are set to be one of the most aggressive clubs in that pitching market. They missed on Yamamoto and traded away a bunch of pitching depth in the Juan Soto deal, leaving them looking to bolster their rotation before the offseason is done. Will they be able to make a big splash in the coming weeks?
3. Arbitration deals upcoming:
January 12 is the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to submit salary figures for the upcoming season. With that date just a week away, there may be some deals that get locked down in the preceding days. Many clubs have a “file and trial” approach where they won’t do a deal after the filing deadline, so it can serve as a sort of ticking clock for any player that wants to avoid a hearing.
Fight those arb salaries! Go Rangers! It may be just enough to get another decent reliever like Yates.
Ohtani and Yamamoto held up the market and now boras is holding up the market. He has the 4 remaining top free agents.
It’s also holding up trades because teams are waiting for some of the top guys to sign in hopes someone will over pays via a trade.
Just because there is some smoke around some of these guys doesn’t mean anything will happen because it boras. Obviously imanaga will be signed soon.
Simm pretty much what I said on different post yesterday when someone suggested clubs had some reason to be delaying on Snell and not wanting to commit to him.
It’s all Boras at this point and nothing at all to do with any issue of any particular player.
When one of his clients sign, they will all be lined up to sign.
He is using all of his pitching clients as leverage against each other to increase their $$. He can’t let one sign early or it may have a negative effect on the others.
I wouldn’t be surprised that he doesn’t map it all out for all to sign on the same day- Yankees you get A; Giants you get B etc.
which means he’s doing his job, as much as it annoys us. for they most part, his clients come out way ahead.
I just really want to see movement like in the other major sports
Question is which one will he set free first? He’ll do it strategically based on which teams are interested in which players. Boras is a great agent. I’d hire him, but there are also other agents who get great results. Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe, is one of them. He’s signed some of the biggest contracts in the sport and most fans still don’t know who he is.
I think the possible trade scenarios are also factoring in. If the Yankees trade for Cease (just an example) and they are no longer in the equation for pumping up the 3 or 4 FA pitchers.
My 2 cents say Boras will wait for the Imanaga signing. Imanaga has until the 11th or his posting window closes so I believe Boras will use the Imanaga numbers as a reference for his clients. Btw, jd Martinez is also a Boras client. The DHs (Martinez, Soler, hernandez, hoskins, etc) are their own category that will open up as soon as one of them gets signed. Anyway, Simm and Longtime, thanks for adding some sanity to replace the paranoia from most posters. And I say right around the 11th the gates will open. 6 wks until camps open BUT you never know how long Boras and other agents will wait. Heck, he’s waited until late March before.
Seems like the only smoke around those guys is a certain herb right now.
Hard for Yankees to sign anyone. They have to over pay and that’s no guarantee as many players pitchers and big bats have signed elsewhere for less. Also, seems no one wants to play for Boone. It appears his lack of depth and talent to manage and complete nonsense when it comes to lineups has sent away any possible signings. Also- No one wants to shave- it’s a fact. Or at least no knee really wants to be told when to shave. If you notice the only new players they have gotten are via TRADE or signing injured guys like Rodon that no one else wanted to take a flier on… speaking of fliers, Ohtani is coming off TJ surgery and will likely be on the DL most of this season and possibly next as well. He won’t pitch for at least 2-3 seasons.
Ohtani definitely won’t pitch & bat for 3-4 seasons. But let’s see ♂️ could be the worst signing in the history of baseball.
FYI, you forgot a decimal point in your username.
Worst signing in history? 178, meet Chris Davis.
Davis was an awful sign. But 700 mil for a guy that will barely play for 2-3 years minimum? Then it’s a mixed bag from there…
Congratulations!! That is the most ridiculous post that I’ve seen in the new year. 178 is probably the combined total of your entire family’s IQ. With remarks that dumb, I’d bet you are in the 20-30 range.
All Yankees fans… lol
You’re just bitter (yankee fan) because the team can’t hit as a whole and they went 2 games over .500 they can’t sign anyone of merit and you have to look in the mirror each morning and see a loser. Must be tuff. Grow a beard to hide it. Oh yea you can, because Yankees have to shave
What’s funny is he apparently thinks Ohtani signed with the Yankees.
I think his user name is 17 (years old, with an) 8 IQ.
I can’t believe 2 people liked your ridiculous comment.
He’ll hit most of season. You can’t hit if on DL. WiffleBall nailed it with his decimal point comment. You’re not very smart 178
Ohtani won’t be on the IL all season, he wont pitch ’till ’25, but he’ll be in the line-up for sure as a dh or rf.
Realistically the Yanks have about 65 milllion to spend next year to stay under the cap. We would think they are saving 42 million or so for Soto, so they could sign a starter now for about 27 million. Yanks are in win now mode with Judge and Cole a year older.
I don’t think the Yankees have reached some point where they can’t attract good or great players. They had a bad season but have a lot of talent and continually put themselves in a position to win and aren’t afraid to pay their own players who perform. I’m no Yankees fan but it’s a top destination I think you’ve just seen the Dodgers go crazy to win it now and the Yankees misfire for a year and are making more of the situation than there is. The Yankees will continue to contend they’ve proved that many times over
For what it is worth, they moved the arbitration exchange deadline up to Thursday, January 11 this year.
Who said no one wants to play for Boone??? That’s a really dumb thing to say esp when it’s 100% the opposite.
The only people that say that are not baseball players, never have been, and never will be.
Only yankee fans say such things…
Do you see anyone signing with the Yankees? To you see any players expressing desire to play for the Yankees/Boobe? No. You don’t. You see cashman having to make trades to get played essentially on loan for a season like Soto, who will sign elsewhere next season if not traded sooner. So hard to be realistic with Yankee fans lol they are so illogical.
Show me one article or interview where a player besides a current or former rival says he doesn’t want to play for yankees, and I’ll admit you are right.
How many player’s dm’s are you sliding into to know this? Assuming none and no one talks publicly about stuff like this.
To say no one wants to play on arguably the greatest (and one of the richest, mind you) MLB franchise ever in one of the greatest cities in the world is the actual illogical statement.
The bias against NYY and their fans here is bananas.
The voices in his head tell him otherwise. Silly gooses just love honking.
buddy does NOT have a 178iq
I know that “NY” doesn’t like Imanaga, but man that’s the guy I want over Snell. (Stay away from Monty, ship sailed with the trade) I feel like he’s going to pitch with a chip on his shoulder and be better than Yoshi in the short term.
IMO if Yankees didn’t waste prospects on Gallo and Montas the Yankees still would have prospects for Bieber or Cease. Is Pereira and Torres enough for Bieber or any pitcher?
I don’t think Torres moves the needle as a one year rental. Especially to any team that’s been mentioned as having starters available for trade. He would need to be traded separately or as part of a three team trade.
@mlbnyyfan
Your opinion is ridiculous, just so you know. Those prospects would now be older, and only Duran became anything of note. If they were still in the Yanks’ system, no team would be trading an ace for them. I mean, neither Gallo or Montas were as valuable as Bieber or Cease, so I don’t think they could even get them for those prospects even if they were in the same place as they were back then.
In short, you’re dumb as a rock.
You can’t argue with stupid (Yankee fan) they don’t get it. Never will. They have won 1 WS in most of the current Yankee fan’s lifetime. No one wants to play for Boone or the Yankees. It’s obvious. In the past years who have they signed? Cole? AJ? And….?
I think Yanks should trade for Marlins ( Cabrera ) and sign Hicks and Clevenger. Clevenger and Cabrera both will give the Yanks the innings with upside and they won’t cost
Imanaga is a flyball pitcher who’s best pitch is a four seem fastball that averages 91.8 mph. I’m not sold on Snell but Imanaga ain’t the guy the Yankees need. FWIW I’m not believing Snell to the Yankees is a thing. It’s nothing more than Boras floating the Yankees rumor tto drive up the price on Snell.
Trading the market vibes, looks like the Yankees have passed on Imanaga for the reasons you cited. He could challenge Giolito for the HR lead. Looks like a better fit in San Francisco, or even on the Mets.
@Salzilla
Agreed. There were some on here complaining about his HR-surrendered rate but Snell and Montgomery have higher rates and especially Montgomery at Yankee Stadium with a 3.13% per AB. Imanaga pitches in a slightly smaller stadium than Yankee Stadium so it’s not that serious an issue. Plus, last year he gave up 7 of 17 HRs at his hone field.
Will finally get some clarification when the Arb salaries are exchanged. Then we’ll see s9me of these trade offers change up or at least know what that “middle ground #” is vs the MLBTR projected salary numbers.
The Yankees would probably prefer to buy rather than trade away more prospects, but I’m not convinced they are going to go hard after any of the big FA pitchers. They haven’t traded for or signed pitching with consistent success. Cole is more the exception, recently. And, I think Yankee ownership is more concerned with contending than actually winning, and some of the incoherence of Cashman’s choices reflect this duality.
Tanaka, Burnett, Sabathia, all pretty good fa sp signings
Agree, and add Mussina to that, but those were in the past. More recently, a higher percentage of injured/underperform
I’m trying to think of more, I had to go back to David Cone. You have a fair point!
Cole is a recent one. It strikes me that Cashman isn’t really keen on major free agent pitchers unless they’re truly great (he made runs at Cliff Lee and now Yamamoto for example). His biggest whiff was NOT pursuing Max Scherzer when he signed with the Nationals, but I think at the time it didn’t look like they’d be contenders for a few more years.
Look back, and you’ll see most of his SP signings were low-risk, high-reward types. It’s only once every five years or so that he shells out for a big free agent starter.
When he does, though, it almost always works out: Mussina, CC, Tanaka, Cole, etc. Rodon was a bust in 2023, but hard to call it a total wash just yet.
The ones that spring to mind are Aj Burnett, Hiroki Kuroda, Freddy Garcia, and JA Happ. They tend to trade or develop pitchers more than sign them, I trust their ability to rate pitchers, they usually acquire above average talent. I could Corbin Burnes or Blake Snell as targets for a must win season ahead of us.
We don’t know that. Cashman hasn’t said a thing of substance since his public drunken interview. There has been very little movement in the pitching market besides Yama and Giolito. Atlanta is presumably out since they traded and extended Sale. It is very difficult to stay competitive year after year without rebuilding.
They would prefer, but played have to WANT to sign with them. Player DONT! so they have to trade.
Snell in NY could be rough.
Dude is laid back and can also be frustrating to watch pitch.
I really don’t think he wants the big city limelight.
SF maybe….but that’s still more than I believe he wants.
Seattle would be perfect…his hometown too…but they don’t need him.
My guess is it is NOT a NY team and probably not an LA team…although the Angels are a slight possibility.
my guess is giants, angels or another team who gets real opportunistic. perhaps the mariners do sign him, to trade a young pitcher for some offensive help? the price has to drop, but it seems like that is whats happening
He’s average mostly. Good years but spread out. They need an ace for the 2 slot. Solid ACE. Nothing less. Monty is a 4 or 5 slot…
there’s plenty of smoke starting to appear around guys like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Shota Imanaga and Dylan Cease,
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Plenty of smoke?
I haven’t heard anything on the first four guys in at least two weeks.
And the Cease talk is so quiet that I had forgotten about him.
Not only no smoke, the news on those guys is -0-.
You rarely hear anyone say that they don’t want to play for the Yankees… the only ones are the ones scared of a big city or Guerrero who has a hang up with the Yankees because of the Yankees didn’t sign his father when he wanted to come here…. Oh and Griffey because Billy Martin wouldn’t let him play on the field before games
The only reason the Yankees are talking about trading for Cease is to “negotiate” with Boras.
They are just playing a game.
Teams would be better off trading for Cease or engaging the Marlins or Mariners for pitching. Snell and Montgomery are a waste of money.
I think the Dodgers juiced the market, and teams are waiting for agents to get back to reality. It’s hard for me to see Snell, Monte, and Bellinger getting 150 plus. The market for Burns and Cease is way too high for teams to bite.