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Padres Notes: Ross, Cashner, Middlebrooks

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With the Diamondbacks striving to address the weakness in their rotation, the Padres competition has grown even more challenging, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The team wants to walk the fine line between contending and rebuilding by collecting a high volume of prospects for their current trade chips. Rosenthal calls it the “Kimbrel Model.” With the high cost of free agent pitching, the club’s rotation depth should become more attractive to other organizations.

  • The Diamondbacks’ signing of Zack Greinke doesn’t change the Padres’ plans, tweets Rosenthal. The club will still aim to contend while reducing payroll and adding prospects. From my perspective, I see that some fans may prefer for the club to enter a full rebuilding mode while others prefer instant gratification. In the case of the Padres, the tightrope approach could make sense. The club has just enough talent to maybe get lucky, yet they’ll probably still collect early draft picks. I find their situation reminiscent of the 2015 Braves. They contended for the first half of the season before selling.
  • Tyson Ross is the team’s best trade asset, but the club could also opt to extend him, suggests Rosenthal (tweet). Ross is under club control through the 2017 season. The righty is widely regarded as possessing perhaps the best slider in baseball, but his fastballs grade out as below average per PITCHf/x. He has a career 3.57 ERA with 8.49 K/9, and 3.65 BB/9. His slider-heavy repertoire means he probably won’t improve upon his walk rate, but he has posted more strikeouts and a better ERA in recent seasons.
  • Per ESPN’s Jayson Stark, it would be hard for the Padres to trade Ross and pretend to contend. That could lead San Diego to prefer a trade involving Andrew Cashner, says CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The Padres will look to deal Cashner once the free agent market dries up. The hard throwing righty is coming off a disappointing season that included a 4.34 ERA with 8.04 K/9 and 3.22 BB/9. He’s posted better walk rates in past seasons, so a rebound in his control could help the 29-year-old recover his past form.
  • Ten teams have shown interest in free agent third baseman Will Middlebrooks, tweets Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. The Padres non-tendered Middlebrooks earlier this week. San Diego originally acquired  the former Red Sox starter last winter in exchange for Ryan Hanigan. After a promising rookie season in 2012, Middlebrooks has failed to live up to expectations. He posted a meager .212/.241/.361 line in 270 plate appearances last season.
  • The Padres future flexibility depends upon which contracts they shed, tweets Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The club owes about $64.5MM to eight players with four arbitration eligible players set to earn about $21MM more. Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton, James Shields, and Ross are their priciest talents.
  • Lin also has the details of the split-contracts signed by Josmil Pinto and Cesar Vargas (tweet). Both will earn just north of the league minimum in the majors ($500K) with at least a six figure guarantee if optioned to the minors.

 

Stark’s Latest: Cueto, Leake Miller, Indians, Rays

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Here are the latest starting pitcher rumors in advance of the winter meetings, courtesy of ESPN’s Jayson Stark.

  • Johnny Cueto is the top pitcher on the free agent market, but his earning potential remains unclear. Some insiders are surprised he turned down the six-year, $120MM offer previously extended by the Diamondbacks. As Stark points out, Cueto is sixth among active starters with a 3.30 ERA so he would seemingly justify a serious investment. However, concerns about his health and late-season struggles have executives worried. Per one source, “If you told me that, within 24 hours [of arriving at the meetings], all of the big free-agent starters would be signed except Cueto, I’d believe it.“
  • Former Reds starter Mike Leake, 28, is in demand largely because he’s one of the youngest pitchers on the market. He has a history of durability, but that comes with league average production on the mound. However, Leake is also well-above average as a hitter, boosting his value to NL clubs. Stark expects a “stampede” in Leake’s direction during the Winter Meetings. One source believes Leake will be overpaid by an exuberant market.
  • The Braves would jump on a Shelby Miller trade if they received the right controllable position player. To date, Atlanta has focused on particularly high value targets like Joc Pederson, A.J. Pollock, and Jorge Soler. As you might guess, few if any teams are eager to trade established, high quality young hitters for pitching. The Braves have shown no sign of backing down on their asking price.
  • We’ve heard a lot about the Indians pitching depth – namely Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco, and Trevor Bauer. Stark and his sources think the club will stand pat this winter. “You’re just shifting around your problems,” said one contact in regard to a hypothetical pitcher-for-hitter swap. The team’s strength is built around their rotation. They may be best served by simply maximizing that advantage.
  • With the exception of Chris Archer, the Rays are shopping all of their starting pitchers. That’s par for the course for the Rays who historically have been open to trading anybody to improve the long term outlook of the franchise. Stark specifically mentions Jake Odorizzi and Matt Moore as available, but we can probably presume that Erasmo Ramirez is being floated too.
  • Stark offers plenty of more notes in his column including the latest on the Yankees, Padres, and the remaining buyers for pitching.

Bullpen Notes: Storen, Sipp, Astros, Rodney, Soria, Soriano

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Here’s the latest on a number of free agent or trade candidate relievers…

  • The Astros have discussed former Nationals closer Drew Storen as a potential backup plan, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets.  Storen could become of more interest to Houston if it fails to land one of its bigger-name targets like Aroldis Chapman, Jake McGee or Ken Giles.
  • The Astros’ search for bullpen help is the major focus of this Houston Winter Meetings preview piece from MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart.  Within the piece, McTaggart notes that there’s mutual interest between the Astros and free agent Tony Sipp for the lefty to return to Houston though the price tag remains an issue.  It could be that the Astros will focus on landing a big name closer first and then address other relief needs like adding a sorely-needed lefty to the bullpen.
  • The Cubs, Padres and Twins have shown the most interest in Fernando Rodney, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.  Rodney would ideally prefer to return to closing, a source tells Berardino, so the Padres could have the edge in this respect since the back of their bullpen is wide open with Craig Kimbrel and Joaquin Benoit gone.  Rodney followed up three years of excellent closer numbers from 2012-14 with a disastrous stint in early 2015 that cost him his stopper job with the Mariners, though he regained some old form after catching on as a setup man with the Cubs late in the season.
  • There haven’t been any developments between the Twins and Joakim Soria since the team made its initial contact, Berardino tweets.  The Royals, Blue Jays, Giants, Rangers, Tigers and Red Sox have all been among the other teams linked to Soria this winter, though the latter two are said to be out of the running after their respective acquisitions of Francisco Rodriguez and Craig Kimbrel.  Soria is looking for a big salary in the form of a three-year deal in the $27MM range, which may eliminate at least a couple of those teams who were only looking at Soria as a setup reliever.
  • Also from Berardino (via Twitter), Rafael Soriano is pitching well in the Dominican League and has drawn attention from a few MLB teams.  The Twins aren’t one of those clubs.

Starting Pitching Notes: Shark, Lackey, Kuma, Shields, Miller, Nova, Fernandez

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The Cubs remain interested in a reunion with Jeff Samardzija, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark, but the team may be getting uncomfortable with the level to which his price is rising. Samardzija, who has reportedly received offers of $90MM and $100MM, is of interest to both the Giants and Dodgers, and the team that loses out on the services of Zack Greinke may very well turn to Samardzija, per Stark. Said one executive from a team that has interest in Samardzija: “I don’t know if he gets to nine figures. But if you put the over/under on him at $90 million, I’d go ’at’ or ’over.'”

Some more notes on what has been an aggressive and high-priced market for starting pitching thus far…

  • As the prices for arms like Samardzija and others rise, a two-year deal for John Lackey is becoming increasingly appealing for the Cubs, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. While the Cubs may indeed have interest in two years for Lackey, it seems reasonable enough to me to believe that interest in him could push the requirement to three years. Lackey will pitch next season at 37, but he’s delivered results that are either on part with or in excess of expectations for younger, second-tier starters and won’t come with as extravagant a price tag as Samardzija, Mike Leake or Wei-Yin Chen.
  • Having already completed five trades and signed four free agents — most recently Nori Aoki — the Mariners will turn their focus to re-signing Hisashi Iwakuma, writes MLB.com’s Greg Johns. General manager Jerry Dipoto told Johns and other reporters that while he still needs to address utility infielder and determine who will play first base in 2015, his focus will be shifting more to the rotation for the time being. “We are continuing to move along with Kuma and we’ll see where that takes us,” said Dipoto.
  • Turning from free agency to the trade side of the starting pitching market, Stark tweeted yesterday that the Padres are hoping to move James Shields without having to eat any money in the deal, citing unnamed clubs that have been in trade talks with San Diego. Not only that, they’re hoping to land a younger shortstop option in the deal. Clearly, that’s a lofty and unlikely goal, as Shields along doesn’t carry that type of value on his own and comes with significant downside given his opt-out clause. If the Padres were willing to take back a sizable contract in exchange for Shields, perhaps the scenario would become more plausible.
  • The Padres, though, think the rising price of free agent starters could make the remaining $65MM on Shields’ contract look more appealing (links to Twitter). That may be the case, but Shields certainly isn’t a bargain, and some scouts tell Rosenthal they feel that Shields’s stuff is in decline. And, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweeted yesterday, his opt-out clause makes him a risky target for any club. Shields isn’t a lock to opt out of the deal even with a big 2016 season, per Lin, because he loves living in San Diego. A trade might make him more inclined to re-enter the market if he performs well enough, so a team could be acquiring just one year of him if he performs up to his previous standards. On the other hand — the aforementioned downside — if Shields repeats his 2015 results or struggles even further, then the team would be left with the two years and $44MM on his contract from 2017-18.
  • The Rockies like Braves right-hander Shelby Miller quite a bit, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. However, Colorado and Atlanta haven’t discussed a possible swap “in a while,” a source told Saunders. While the Braves are seeking outfield upgrades, an expensive and relatively short-term asset like Carlos Gonzalez wouldn’t hold appeal to the Braves, he writes. Rather, a player like Corey Dickerson and other prospects would probably be Atlanta’s asking price, he continues, adding that the Rox aren’t presently in the Miller derby.
  • The White Sox were interested in both Jesse Chavez and Ivan Nova last month, reports George A. King III of the New York Post, but the fact that Chavez is now off the board following a trade to Toronto hasn’t increased Chicago’s interest in Nova. The Yankees have discussed Nova with multiple teams and will continue to market him at the Winter Meetings, though the asking price reported by King — a younger arm with more controllable years — seems too steep unless the Yankees are adding other pieces to the deal.
  • The Marlins aren’t shopping ace Jose Fernandez, president of baseball operations Michael Hill tells MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. Hill said he’s “not sure where that came from” in reference to rumors that Fernandez could be had in trades, but the plan is for Fernandez to front Miami’s rotation next season. Hill said that teams, naturally, ask for Fernandez all the time, just as they did with Giancarlo Stanton prior to his extension. But, that’s to be expected with elite players that are not locked up on contract extensions, he notes, and inquiring teams are informed that Fernandez isn’t for sale.

Padres, Angels, Dodgers Showing Most Interest In Utley

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The Padres, Angels and Dodgers are showing the most interest in second baseman Chase Utley, reports ESPN’s Jayson Stark. Utley has told friends that his preference is to play in his native California, Stark hears, adding that the Los Angeles area native now resides in northern California but still has family in the southern portion of the state.

Some believe that the Padres’ interest could be a precursor to a trade of some kind, Stark writes, as the team has internal second base options in the form of Jedd Gyorko and Jose Pirela. (Additionally, I’d list Cory Spangenberg, Yangervis Solarte and recently acquired Carlos Asuaje in that mix.) Given the depth of options the Padres have at second, the Utley connection is perhaps a bit surprising, but Stark nonetheless characterizes the team’s interest as “strong.”

The Angels, he notes, could look to use Utley both at second base and designated hitter next season depending on matchups. Johnny Giavotella manned second for most of the 2015 season in Anaheim while batting .272/.318/.375 and delivering suspect defense. Of course, Utley himself is coming off a mere .212/.286/.343 batting line between the Phillies and Dodgers. And, at 37 (later this month), it might not be wise to count on plus defense from the veteran, though metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved pegged him as only slightly below average and much preferred his work to that of the younger Giavotella.

Stark writes that the Dodgers could use Utley as a short-term stopgap to prospect Jose Peraza — a former Top 100 prospect with the Braves that debuted with the Dodgers in 2015 but received just 25 plate appearances in the Majors. Peraza has considerable speed, but his combined .293/.316/.378 line between the Triple-A affiliates for L.A. and Atlanta wasn’t as impressive as his work at the lower levels in the minors. Then again, he’s also still just 21 years of age, making him significantly younger than the bulk of his competition in Triple-A.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Dodgers have more interest in Utley than they do in Ben Zobrist, which would seem to mesh with the notion that a short-term bridge to Peraza is the preferred route for the team. An outside addition isn’t necessarily needed at all, thanks to the presence of Enrique Hernandez, although adding Utley in a stopgap capacity would allow the Dodgers to continue leveraging Hernandez’s versatility in somewhat of a super-utility capacity.

Trade Notes: Escobar, Yankees, Shields

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We just took a look at the latest on Braves righty Shelby Miller, but there are plenty of other possible trade situations percolating around the league. Here are some notes on a few of those:

  • The Nationals are expected to dangle infielder Yunel Escobar in trade talks next week, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. A possible trade of Escobar has long seemed plausible, as Washington has a variety of other right-handed-hitting infield options. He could still be relied upon to hold down the fort at shortstop while Trea Turner finishes his development, but a left-handed bat (such as Ben Zobrist) would probably fit better. As I discussed in breaking down the Nats’ offseason outlook, the club might prefer to reallocate Escobar’s $7MM payroll hit elsewhere.
  • The Yankees are participating in wide-ranging trade talks in the run-up to the Winter Meetings, Buster Olney of ESPN.com tweets, with the one refrain being New York’s focus on adding young rotation pieces. That’s long seemed a defining focus of the winter for GM Brian Cashman, though it remains to be seen what level of starter the team hopes to acquire and what kind of assets it is willing to part with to make a deal.
  • Meanwhile, the Padres “continue to push” righty James Shields in trade talks, Olney tweets. Shields will soon turn 34, is coming off of an underwhelming campaign, and is owed $65MM over the next three seasons (including a 2019 option buyout) under his back-loaded deal. Those considerations suggest that San Diego may need to sweeten the pot (with young talent or cash) to find a taker for the contract, but Shields is hardly immovable. To the contrary, he’s still quite a useful pitcher: his 2015 effort did nothing to disturb his record of durability and he actually put up career highs in swinging strike rate (12.4%) and strikeout rate (9.6 K/9).

Padres Non-Tender Will Middlebrooks

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The Padres announced tonight that they’ve non-tendered third baseman Will Middlebrooks, making him a free agent. San Diego also elected not to tender contracts to catcher Rocky Gale and left-handed reliever Frank Garces, dropping the club’s 40-man roster to a total of 36 players.

Middlebrooks, 27, was acquired in a trade with the Red Sox that sent catcher Ryan Hanigan to Boston last year. The former top prospect was San Diego’s Opening Day third baseman, but he faded after a hot start and ultimately endured similar struggles to the ones that led the Boston front office to deem him expendable. Middlebrooks hit just .212/.241/.361 with nine homers and eventually lost his grip on the starting job at third base. He saw eight innings at first base and, surprisingly, also logged 39 innings as the Padres’ shortstop in 2015.

Middlebrooks was also demoted to Triple-A midway through the season but struggled even in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League where he batted a meek .255/.287/379. He’s young enough that his pedigree and early success will earn him some looks this offseason, but he’s now three full seasons removed from an impressive rookie campaign in 2012 that saw him bat .288/.325/.509 with 15 homers in 286 plate appearances. Still, it’s conceivable that clubs such as the Braves, White Sox and Indians (among others) which lack a concrete option at third base will consider Middlebrooks something of an upside play and hope he can recapture some of the promise he showed earlier in his career.

Athletics, Padres Swap Drew Pomeranz, Yonder Alonso

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The Athletics and Padres have announced a deal that will send first baseman Yonder Alonso and southpaw reliever Mark Rzepczynski to Oakland in exchange for lefties Drew Pomeranz and Jose Torres. There’s also a player to be named later heading to San Diego.

Aug 11, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres first baseman Yonder Alonso (23) hits a two RBI double during the second inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

This deal is clearly motivated in large part by today’s non-tender deadline, as it involves several pieces with arbitration implications. MLBTR projects Alonso to earn $2.5MM in his second-to-last season of eligibility and Rzepczynski to take home $3MM in his pre-free agent campaign. Pomeranz, in turn, projects at $1.3MM as a first-year-eligible player.

By adding Alonso, moreover, the A’s now seem all but certain to move on from fellow lefty-swinging first baseman Ike Davis, who is projected for a $3.8MM salary but will likely end up a free agent. Presumably, Alonso will pair with the right-handed-hitting Mark Canha in a first base platoon. The 28-year-old Alonso has never quite lived up to expectations in San Diego, and the power has never really come around, but he does have excellent on-base abilities. He put up a .282/.361/.381 slash in 402 plate appearances last year.

In Rzepczynski, meanwhile, Oakland adds another pen piece as the team continues to bolster its relief corps. The 30-year-old put up an unsightly 5.66 ERA last year, but that could well have been the product of some ill fortune, as reflected in a .381 BABIP-against and 25% HR/FB rate. He posted a strong 10.5 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 while generating a ridiculous 67.3% groundball rate, and ERA estimators valued him as a much stronger contributor than the results suggested.

On the Padres’ side of the deal, Pomeranz has emerged as a solid swingman option since coming to Oakland before the 2014 season. Last year, he tossed 86 innings (including nine starts) and posted a 3.66 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9. Pomeranz was much more effective against lefties than righties last year, but he came up as a starter and could certainly be given a chance to operate from the rotation for San Diego. Though he did just undergo a shoulder procedure, the 27-year-old is reportedly expected to be ready to go when camp opens.

Meanwhile, though the 22-year-old Torres only cracked the High-A level late last year, he was just added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper tweets that Torres works into the mid-nineties with his fastball and has made strides with controlling his secondary offering (a curve).

ESPN.com’s Keith Law reported the major pieces of the deal on Twitter. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the deal was done (via Twitter).

Rosenthal On Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Cueto, Ross

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Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has a new notes column that contains quite a few Hot Stove related items. Some highlights from his latest piece…

  • There’s a belief in the industry that the Cardinals’ new television deal — which begins in 2018, when it will net the team $50MM and continue to rise to about $86MM, per Forbes — could allow the team to sign two premium free agents. Rosenthal adds, though, that the Cardinals could nonetheless be uncomfortable making the top bid for David Price or Jason Heyward and might be “reluctant” to commit the type of dollars Chris Davis will command.
  • Meanwhile, the Cubs probably only have the financial firepower to add about $20MM to their annual payroll this winter. Sources tell Rosenthal that the club’s payroll will be in the $130-140MM range for the foreseeable future. Based on the numbers at Cot’s Contracts and MLBTR’s arbitration projections, the Cubs are a bit over $110MM in 2016 when including league-minimum players. That leaves some wiggle room for two adds, but probably not if one of those players is Price or Zack Greinke. Rosenthal notes that the Cubs could add a young pitcher via trade, possibly for Jorge Soler. That wouldn’t impact payroll much in the near-term and would free the club to pursue Heyward or Alex Gordon to reduce the team’s overall strikeout rate (and improve the outfield defense).
  • The Dodgers have at least discussed the possibility of signing both Greinke and Price internally, according to Rosenthal, but they’re unlikely to go that route. Even the Dodgers and their seemingly limitless budget aren’t keen on the notion of paying three starters in the vicinity of $30MM annually, and they already have one such pitcher in Clayton Kershaw.
  • That J.A. Happ landed a $36MM total from the Blue Jays could serve to increase the leverage that teams like the Indians and Rays have in talks for their starting pitchers. One exec told Rosenthal that “mediocre pitching” now costs a minimum of $30MM total. While that’s true enough, I don’t know that the Happ signing necessarily brought that realization about. We’ve seen players like Jason Hammel, Jason Vargas and Ricky Nolasco clear the $30MM barrier in recent seasons, after all, and Happ’s final push in Pittsburgh shows he’s at least capable of pitching at a high level if those adjustments can be sustained.
  • The D-Backs’ interest in Johnny Cueto stems, in part, from the fact that he’s not tied to draft pick compensation. Arizona selects 13th overall next season and values that pick, Rosenthal writes. The team is reluctant to part with one of the top overall unprotected picks and probably isn’t likely to part with it for a second-tier starter (e.g. Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen). Arizona has already been tied to both Mike Leake and Kenta Maeda, either of whom could bolster the rotation without harming next year’s draft.
  • The Padres are still receiving plenty of interest in right-hander Tyson Ross but are only willing to move him for a “monster package,” as Rosenthal terms it. Ross is controlled for two more seasons, and MLBTR projects him to earn $10MM in 2016.
  • Prior to Colby Rasmus accepting their qualifying offer, the Astros considered making a run at Brett Gardner or a similar type of player to fill the club’s leadoff slot, per Rosenthal. Now, however, they’ll likely use Jose Altuve there as the primary option again in 2016.

Quick Hits: Holliday, Davis, Price, Cubs, Padres, Relievers, CBA

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In response to a reader question about Matt Holliday as a possible trade candidate, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch doubts the Cardinals would move a such strong bat since the team’s main winter goal is to add offense.  Langosch isn’t sure if the Cards have any interest in dealing Holliday or if he would accept a trade via his 10-and-5 veto rights.  Even at age 35 and battling injuries last season, Holliday still posted a very respectable .279/.394/.410 line over 277 plate appearances.  2016 is his last guaranteed year under contract (St. Louis has a $17MM club option on him for 2017) so it’s also not like Holliday is a long-term roadblock for the club’s upcoming young outfielders.  Here’s some more from around baseball as we look forward to leftover turkey tomorrow…

  • The Astros aren’t likely to be big players for Chris Davis, a source familiar with the situation tells Evan Drelllich of the Houston Chronicle.  Davis will command a big price and Houston already has a lot of high-power, high-strikeout hitters.  I myself speculated that Davis and the Astros could be a fit in my Astros Offseason Outlook piece, under the logic that the team needs a big left-handed bat, Davis is a Texas native and first base would be open if Chris Carter and Evan Gattis were non-tendered.  Drellich’s piece looks at that first base situation for the Astros, and the presence of prospects Tyler White and A.J. Reed might also make a Davis signing unlikely.
  • Six general managers who recently spoke with Peter Gammons believe the Red Sox will sign David Price this offseason.  “Boston will go $30-40M above anyone else” to land Price, one NL GM opines.  This is just the latest chatter connecting Price to the Sox, and while Gammons writes that “some feel he is uneasy about Boston, but David is so sophisticated, so talented and so intelligent he will make the best of any situation.”  Another GM, however, speculates that the Cardinals could be the ones to make the big play for Price, passing on re-signing Jason Heyward in the process.
  • Gammons shares some more chatter from his sources, including “a lot of John Lackey and Alex Gordon to the Cubs speculation.”
  • Recently designated players like John Axford, Daniel Nava, A.J. Griffin, Danny Hultzen and Wilin Rosario could all be intriguing targets for the Padres, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune opines.  The first three are free agents, Hultzen was outrighted off the Mariners’ 40-man roster and Rosario is still in DFA limbo.
  • Fangraphs’ Eno Sarris tries to identify some of the smaller-name or underrated relief arms on the open market that could blossom into bargain pickups.  The Cubs are one example of a club that has built an entire bullpen (and a strong one, at that) out of such under-the-radar pitchers, as Sarris notes.
  • One of the underlying stories of 2016 will be the negotiations between MLB and the players union over the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, ESPN’s Jayson Stark writes.  Stark’s piece highlights some of the major issues that are likely to play a big role in the upcoming talks, ranging from revenue sharing, free agency and the qualifying offer, the length of the season, a possible international amateur draft and more.  Another interesting topic could be how the league may address teams “tanking” several seasons in an attempt to rebuild, and possible solutions include a draft lottery or a rule prohibiting teams from drafting in the top five in consecutive seasons.
  • The good news about the CBA talks is that multiple sources on both sides tell Stark that everyone wants to keep the labor peace that baseball has enjoyed for over two decades.  “It’s a 9-and-a-half-billion dollar industry.  Nobody is going to want to blow it up,” one source tells Stark.
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