I'm back for this week's mailbag! We've got questions on the Boras Four, the Cubs' plan at catcher, available righty relievers, Juan Soto's defense, the Blue Jays' offense, the recent gambling suspensions, my one-third award picks, and much more.
Doug asks:
Do you think that front offices will feel even more compelled to depress free agent salaries after all of the prolonged drama about "The Boras Four" and none of those players panning out to be very good? Will any of Chapman, Bellinger, Snell, or Montgomery opt out of their contract?
Owners and players will be diametrically opposed on player salaries until the end of time, or at least until the end of Major League Baseball. But to your point, it stands to reason that if the early performance of the late-signing Boras pitchers holds up, more front offices will be wary of giving big AAVs to hurlers signing well into spring training, even on short-term deals.
Blake Snell has been terrible, and since debuting April 8th has separate IL stints for adductor and groin strains. Snell recently told reporters, "The one thing I would say is that big-league spring training, you need it. You have to go to spring training. I hope teams see that. I don’t know what [Jordan] Montgomery is doing, but I bet it’s tough for him."
Montgomery, who expressed a similar sentiment, sits at a 5.48 ERA after eight starts, with the worst strikeout rate of his career.
Some pitchers have succeeded after signing late, notably Ervin Santana signing on 3-12-14 and putting up a 3.2 WAR season for the Braves. But both Snell and Montgomery signed later than Santana did, and most examples show pitchers struggling without a normal spring training.
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did snell fire boras yet?
i know montgomery did
Chapman is at 2.4 war through 60 games. I’d say over 5 war would qualify as very good, and that’s what he’s on pace for
Are you referring to the wife beating POS?
Matt Chapman did nothing of the kind.
Wtf are you talking about?
I thought that the Boras Spring Training camp was just as effective at getting his guys ready – at least that was their mantra prior to signing. Odd how suddenly it’s not effective when they suck.
“Boras spring training”..Boras runs the MLBPA to the benefit of the top 5% of players and to the detriment of the other 95% of players. The Scherzers, Machados and Verlanders benefit while the more typical(and average)players like J.D Davis are unceremoniously released with almost nothing, even though their play seemingly didn’t warrant it.
Don’t forget general stupidity. The opening of Moneyball notes the unusually large number of idiot ex players, nepo babies, friends of ownership, etc… working in executive leadership positions compared to the NBA and NFL which were more like a traditional business run by experienced MBA’s.
@Case What was being referred to at the beginning of Moneyball was MLB front office positions, not the MLBPA.
@MLB apparently reading comprehension is an issue for you as just yesterday it was explained to you that each NLB player has an equal vote as to their MLBPA representation.
They also each have one equal vote as to ratifying their collective bargaining agreement. So any notion that Boras runs the MLBPA is absolute nonsense.
And against is “Boras Corporation”. Boras is not a single person acting as this evil puppet master as you try and ignorantly portray.
IMO the reason *why* the Boras players ened up signing late is far more interesting and the more important story for MLB.
Boras couldn’t get enough teams with $ involved in the bidding to drive up the price.
Regardless of what Chapman, Snell, etc. do on the field that’s going to continue to be an issue because of the DSG bankruptcy. In fact, it could get worse this offseason. If DSG doesn’t emerge from bankruptcy (which MLB thinks will be harder now that Comcast has dumped a bunch of teams broadcasts) very few teams are going to have payroll flexibility this offseason.
Less teams vying for their services. Many teams in the past who either had open spending under the luxury or were willing to outspend the luxury to an extent. Plus some teams felt uneasy giving 7-year deals based on recent examples. Boras lost leverage and didn’t think certain teams would stand firm.
MLB has a system which rewards large revenue teams to sign “older” players from Japan. MLB also has a system which rewards teams who play rookies starting on day one who go on to win ROY award. And you’re predicting a 30-year old will win the NL ROY award, which would give Dodgers an extra 1st round pick.
This is just another example of how MLB cares more about big market team success than mid and small market team success.
Hi Tim, what is the best way to reach you? I’ve attempted a variety of MLBTR emails, Contact Us, and replying to the Twitter account. If it’s becoming bothersome, please just let me know but there is a proposal that can truly benefit the Trade Rumors enterprise, and am looking for a quick conversation to hear your thoughts. Please reach out to me at rob@prosportsoutlook.com. Looking forward to talking with you!
Best regards,
Rob Mason