2018-19 Offseason Thread

[Lateral Quicks]

Somewhat surprised they left Berger off the 40-man after the season he just had. Lefties with those peripherals don't grow on trees. Perhaps the combination of age and lack of experience combined to work against him.

I hope he sneaks through. He has the potential to be a cheap and valuable bullpen piece for many years. That's not nothing.

[polo007]

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https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-storylines-heading-into-thanksgiving/c-300961160?tid=282421090

The Yankees, Blue Jays, Angels, Brewers, Phillies and Astros are among the teams known to have interest in J.A. Happ, sources say.

[YogiStewart]

Donaldson to the Braves for $23 mil/1 year?
lolol.
AA's back, baby!!

[dagger]

Donaldson signs with the Braves. A one year contract for $23 million.


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[polo007]

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[phillipmike]

The Blue Jays announced tonight that they have claimed righty Oliver Drake off waivers from the Rays. To open a 40-man spot, the Toronto club designated fellow right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. for assignment.

This move continues a seemingly never-ending tour of the majors for Drake, a 31-year-old hurler with intriguing stuff who has seen many a 40-man roster but rarely stays in the same place for long. Since the start of the 2017 campaign, he has appeared with the Orioles, Brewers, Indians, Angels, Twins, and Blue Jays.

[Spiderdan22]

Donaldson signs with the Braves. A one year contract for $23 million.


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Shatkins failure is now complete.

[polo007]

Former Toronto Blue Jays OF Harold Ramirez has signed with the Miami Marlins.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Shatkins failure is now complete.

How so? I mean, yeah, they would have been better to have traded him a couple seasons ago but Rogers was never going to sign off on that. Failure would have been signing him to a long-term extension/contract. Thank goodness they didn't do that.

[vaff87]

It irritates me that the MLB donated money to Cindy Hyde-Smith.

[Black Watch]

It irritates me that the MLB donated money to Cindy Hyde-Smith.

It shouldn't.

[polo007]

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[Spiderdan22]

Shatkins failure is now complete.

How so? I mean, yeah, they would have been better to have traded him a couple seasons ago but Rogers was never going to sign off on that. Failure would have been signing him to a long-term extension/contract. Thank goodness they didn't do that.

Yeah he should have been dealt before 2018. But since he wasn't, the should have held on to him and given him a QO. It was obvious he was only getting a one year deal anyway. Now if he has a rebound season, and he probably will, he could have been dealt for a better player than a pitcher who is 7000 years old and never played above AA. Complete failure to manage assets, and even worse that it's for a former MVP.

[manjusaka]

I rather have Merryweather who acted as rejected QO compensation pick, instead of resign him for one year. I can see Donaldson been dealt again in 2019, it does appears that Donaldson is just warming the seat until Austin Riley is ready for the Braves.

He needs get back heathy especially he had started the season with injuries for two straight years. We will see in the spring time. In today's market, teams don't pay older players with big money anymore. It is very likely Donaldson had rejected the best offer he will ever get, which was from Shakins.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Yeah he should have been dealt before 2018. But since he wasn't, the should have held on to him and given him a QO. It was obvious he was only getting a one year deal anyway. Now if he has a rebound season, and he probably will, he could have been dealt for a better player than a pitcher who is 7000 years old and never played above AA. Complete failure to manage assets, and even worse that it's for a former MVP.

Ahhhh, gotcha. The failure was getting Merryweather, not anything else in particular. I mean, it's fine not to like him but I wouldn't hold my breath on Donaldson having a bounce back year at age 33 after playing in 165 games over the last 2 seasons. He might be better than he was last year but he'd have to be a lot better to return much of anything. This same argument was made for Bautista last season. It didn't play out that way. You're talking about a lot of nickel and dime type stuff to try to get another nickel in the equation. That's just ridiculous hindsight stuff. Go that way and you wind up never making moves out of paralysis for always thinking you're going to get more. The only failure to manage assets was not moving Donaldson after the 2016 season or during the 2017 season but I'm not so sure that can be put at the feet of management rather than ownership. Honestly, I've been pretty stoked about the asset management so far. I'd have liked to see more trades for international signing money, picks or younger prospects but I get where they're going targeting older prospects, too.

[Skin Blues]

Shatkins failure is now complete.

How so? I mean, yeah, they would have been better to have traded him a couple seasons ago but Rogers was never going to sign off on that. Failure would have been signing him to a long-term extension/contract. Thank goodness they didn't do that.

Yeah he should have been dealt before 2018. But since he wasn't, the should have held on to him and given him a QO. It was obvious he was only getting a one year deal anyway. Now if he has a rebound season, and he probably will, he could have been dealt for a better player than a pitcher who is 7000 years old and never played above AA. Complete failure to manage assets, and even worse that it's for a former MVP.

So your plan was to pay Donaldson $14M so that we can trade him for a prospect that is worth maybe $6M at the deadline in 2019. And this of course pre-supposes that Donaldson is as good as ever, and remains healthy. Which is quite a risk considering his age, and how the previous two seasons have gone with him. And this is the best-case scenario, just to get a marginally better prospect.

I don't think there's any doubt that we did the best we could at the deadline last year to get a good return on Donaldson. Sinking another $18M into him in hopes of an incremental improvement would have been a really bad bet to make since we don't benefit at all from any upside, really. The Indians would have benefited from a resurgence in the playoffs, so they had a reason to take the risk with him.

I can see the argument that we waited too long to trade him, which of course makes sense in hindsight. As do all non-trades of a player who goes on to have serious health and performance issues, especially when a team severely under-performs expectations overall. But to say the Jays made a mistake at the deadline last year makes no sense. Cut your losses, don't double-down with a bad bet.

[dagger]

I can see the argument that we waited too long to trade him, which of course makes sense in hindsight. As do all non-trades of a player who goes on to have serious health and performance issues, especially when a team severely under-performs expectations overall. But to say the Jays made a mistake at the deadline last year makes no sense. Cut your losses, don't double-down with a bad bet.

The Paxton trade was an eyeopener for me. The Mariners moved him at the right time, but got only a so-so package. Considering the price tag on good starting pitching, this was a fairly modest return. Maybe the whole market is shifting, and not just for outfielders and first basemen. Maybe you just can't expect a rich return for a very good player unless he's younger and still has unrealized upside, like a Christian Yellich type player.

[Skin Blues]

I can see the argument that we waited too long to trade him, which of course makes sense in hindsight. As do all non-trades of a player who goes on to have serious health and performance issues, especially when a team severely under-performs expectations overall. But to say the Jays made a mistake at the deadline last year makes no sense. Cut your losses, don't double-down with a bad bet.

The Paxton trade was an eyeopener for me. The Mariners moved him at the right time, but got only a so-so package. Considering the price tag on good starting pitching, this was a fairly modest return. Maybe the whole market is shifting, and not just for outfielders and first basemen. Maybe you just can't expect a rich return for a very good player unless he's younger and still has unrealized upside, like a Christian Yellich type player.

Paxton has only 2 years of control left, whereas Yelich had 5 at the time he was traded. That's a huge difference. Donaldson with only one year of control at a price tag of $23M, coming off of a season where he missed 50 games due to injury, and at 32 years old, might not have had as much trade value as everybody assumes. We would have had a better return than Merryweather, but it wouldn't have been earth-shattering.

[polo007]

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CLEVELAND -- Danny Salazar was a revelation when he arrived unexpectedly in 2013 and took on the important assignment of starting the American League Wild Card Game. He was an All-Star in '16 on the might of a monster first half.

But dormancy has offset the dominance, and right now the label that most aptly applies to Salazar is "non-tender candidate." The Indians have until 8 p.m. ET on Friday to decide what to do with the oft-injured Salazar after a 2018 season in which he didn't throw a single pitch at any level.

As for Salazar, he earned $5 million in a lost 2018 season. After missing time with arm injuries in both 2016 and '17, he experienced right shoulder soreness in his winter workouts and never made it back to the mound. He had surgery to clean up the inflammation in the shoulder in July.

Can the Indians afford to go down the $5 million road with Salazar again, given his injury history? Would he hold up better in a bullpen role? Are the trade talks involving Kluber, Carrasco or Bauer gaining enough momentum that Salazar is too important of a depth piece to disregard?

These are tough questions for the Indians to answer, but their entire offseason outlook has revolved around an inflexible financial picture, and the Salazar decision -- to tender or not to tender -- is an important layer of complexity in that conversation. We'll find out Friday which direction they go.

[polo007]

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