Around the MLB 2018

zilby · Post #1081 » by **zilby** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 1:33 am

polo007 · Post #1082 » by **polo007** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 9:55 am

According to Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington, Andrew McCutchen will most likely remain with the team in 2017.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18238959/pittsburgh-pirates-trade-talks-featuring-andrew-mccutchen-fizzle

The winter meetings began with the strong possibility that the Pittsburgh Pirates would trade Andrew McCutchen. They ended Thursday with the star outfielder still on the team, with the expectation he will be there on Opening Day as well.

"Our intent coming in here was to have Andrew McCutchen be in our lineup going forward," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington told reporters. "No one changed that. It's unlikely someone changes that going forward. We're not going to close the door, but we're not going to be making calls."

Huntington said he talked to multiple teams at the winter meetings about McCutchen, but none of them were willing to meet his steep asking price.

"We took calls. We listened. We engaged," Huntington told reporters. "And not just on Andrew but on other players who are on one- or two-year contracts. As we will always do, if we find the right move and we believe the right move is to move the player, we'll move the player. If we believe the right move is to hold the player, then we'll hold the player."

"In this instance, obviously, we felt the right move was to hold the player and have him continue to help us win a lot of games at the major league level. ... We expected Andrew to be a Pirate. We feel great about Andrew being a Pirate. He's done remarkable things for this organization. We look forward to him being in our lineup next year and continuing on as a Pirate."

If McCutchen is with the Pirates on Opening Day, he might not be in center field. Manager Clint Hurdle told reporters on Wednesday that he talked to McCutchen at the end of last season about moving to a corner-outfield spot in 2017. The outfielder seemed to be receptive to the idea, Hurdle said.

wazabifuzz · Post #1083 » by **wazabifuzz** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 1:58 pm

I think now, they should just sign Jose to a 2 + option deal.

then see what Pompey has as a part time guy. He hasn't really played that much last year but it's either he's too old to be considered a prospect now.

The_Hater · Post #1084 » by **The_Hater** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 2:43 pm

wazabifuzz wrote:I think now, they should just sign Jose to a 2 + option deal.

then see what Pompey has as a part time guy. He hasn't really played that much last year but it's either he's too old to be considered a prospect now.

If they sign Jose, huge if, I can't imagine it would be for more than one season. They're not signing up for multiple seasons of Jose butchering balls in RF. And with the market soft Jose and his ego may use that one season to regain his value.

Pompey will almost certainly be in AAA learning how to hit. Carerra and Upton are the part time guys, I just hope they're not platooning together in LF. That's the absolute worst case scenario. Need a LH platoon partner for Upton (wouldn't be surprised if it's Saunders at this point) and Carerra to be the extra (5th) OF. Assuming they keep that many OF's.

wazabifuzz · Post #1085 » by **wazabifuzz** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 3:41 pm

if pompey is stuck in AAA they should try and move him to get a more useful piece

zilby · Post #1086 » by **zilby** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:16 pm

So Fowler got 5/$82.5M, versus the 5/$75M we supposedly offered.

I guess the question would be whether DF could've played like an all-star against AL pitching (more specifically, the AL East) and whether it's silly or not to let him go over a $1.5M AAV difference.

Wo1verine · Post #1087 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:18 pm

Read on Twitter

I wouldn't want Fowler for 5 years - But our team allegedly wasn't even in the ballpark with a 4/$60M offer on the table.

For a management team that gets paid millions of $$$ they need to understand the market better and stop wasting time on players you have no chance at acquiring.

Skin Blues · Post #1088 » by **Skin Blues** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:19 pm

Pompey is in AAA because he can't even crack one of the worst outfields in the majors. There's no reason to move him because he's not worth more to another team than he is to us. He's still somewhat of a prospect, and I don't think we're in a position to be dumping all of our prospects. Especially ones that could theoretically help the major league team later this season.

As for Jose, I can see a 2 year contract for him. 2/$32M or something like that. It woudl make sense for us. He may prefer to go with a one year deal (and so would the team, no doubt) so he can cash in with the new CBA next year, but that'd be a risk for him to take, and he would likely have to settle for less than the QO he rejected.

Wo1verine · Post #1089 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:25 pm

Skin Blues wrote:Pompey is in AAA because he can't even crack one of the worst outfields in the majors. There's no reason to move him because he's not worth more to another team than he is to us. He's still somewhat of a prospect, and I don't think we're in a position to be dumping all of our prospects. Especially ones that could theoretically help the major league team later this season.

As for Jose, I can see a 2 year contract for him. 2/$32M or something like that. It woudl make sense for us. He may prefer to go with a one year deal (and so would the team, no doubt) so he can cash in with the new CBA next year, but that'd be a risk for him to take, and he would likely have to settle for less than the QO he rejected.

Steve Phillips doesn't think Bautista is in our plans even with Fowler signing with STL.

I think we all got to prepare ourselves for people like Revere or Moss/ Saunders types.

Hoopstarr · Post #1090 » by **Hoopstarr** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:32 pm

Wo1verine wrote:
Skin Blues wrote:Pompey is in AAA because he can't even crack one of the worst outfields in the majors. There's no reason to move him because he's not worth more to another team than he is to us. He's still somewhat of a prospect, and I don't think we're in a position to be dumping all of our prospects. Especially ones that could theoretically help the major league team later this season.

As for Jose, I can see a 2 year contract for him. 2/$32M or something like that. It woudl make sense for us. He may prefer to go with a one year deal (and so would the team, no doubt) so he can cash in with the new CBA next year, but that'd be a risk for him to take, and he would likely have to settle for less than the QO he rejected.

Steve Phillips doesn't think Bautista is in our plans even with Fowler signing with STL.

I think we all got to prepare ourselves for people like Revere or Moss/ Saunders types.

Wo1verine · Post #1091 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:34 pm

Hoopstarr wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:
Skin Blues wrote:Pompey is in AAA because he can't even crack one of the worst outfields in the majors. There's no reason to move him because he's not worth more to another team than he is to us. He's still somewhat of a prospect, and I don't think we're in a position to be dumping all of our prospects. Especially ones that could theoretically help the major league team later this season.

As for Jose, I can see a 2 year contract for him. 2/$32M or something like that. It woudl make sense for us. He may prefer to go with a one year deal (and so would the team, no doubt) so he can cash in with the new CBA next year, but that'd be a risk for him to take, and he would likely have to settle for less than the QO he rejected.

Steve Phillips doesn't think Bautista is in our plans even with Fowler signing with STL.

I think we all got to prepare ourselves for people like Revere or Moss/ Saunders types.

polo007 · Post #1092 » by **polo007** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:38 pm

Read on Twitter

Santoki · Post #1093 » by **Santoki** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 4:46 pm

Wo1verine wrote:

Read on Twitter

I wouldn't want Fowler for 5 years - But our team allegedly wasn't even in the ballpark with a 4/$60M offer on the table.

For a management team that gets paid millions of $$$ they need to understand the market better and stop wasting time on players you have no chance at acquiring.

If all they offered was 4/60 then the Cards wouldn't have gone to 5/82.5 with a full NTC. It was definitely a lot closer than that.

The_Hater · Post #1094 » by **The_Hater** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 5:05 pm

Wo1verine wrote:

Read on Twitter

I wouldn't want Fowler for 5 years - But our team allegedly wasn't even in the ballpark with a 4/$60M offer on the table.

For a management team that gets paid millions of $$$ they need to understand the market better and stop wasting time on players you have no chance at acquiring.

The Jays offered Edwin $80 million back in November, you could have made the exact same comment about that offer and yet now that looks like more money than he's going to get anywhere.

$60/4 was very close to what Fowler's market value was projected to be so that's far from an insult.

The market isn't stagnant and offers are put on the table to inspire negotiations. In Fowler's case, the market rose and in Edwin's case it shrunk.

dagger · Post #1095 » by **dagger** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 5:42 pm

The problem for the Jays is that try as they might to keep in contention, this is simply not the time - because of outstanding commitments and lack of farm system assets to trade – to sign 30 year olds to five year deals with full NTC. A lot of fans won't understand that, but management is paid to think in multi-year windows. I've been saying that the challenge this winter is to bridge a one- or two-year gap until the farm system is replenished (at least for trade purposes, and longer for bringing talent all the way to the MLB roster). The alternative to contending is to go out, stumble along until July, and then trade assets aggressively for some top 100 prospects to accelerate the rebuild and lay the foundation for a longer-term window than AA was able to create with his farm system fire sale of 2015.

Wo1verine · Post #1096 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 6:07 pm

The_Hater wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:

Read on Twitter

I wouldn't want Fowler for 5 years - But our team allegedly wasn't even in the ballpark with a 4/$60M offer on the table.

For a management team that gets paid millions of $$$ they need to understand the market better and stop wasting time on players you have no chance at acquiring.

The Jays offered Edwin $80 million back in November, you could have made the exact same comment about that offer and yet now that looks like more money than he's going to get anywhere.

$60/4 was very close to what Fowler's market value was projected to be so that's far from an insult.

The market isn't stagnant and offers are put on the table to inspire negotiations. In Fowler's case, the market rose and in Edwin's case it shrunk.

I never mentioned it was an insult, just said why bother? When the $60M number was reported, we all knew ( or at least i did) Fowler wasn't coming here.

With Edwin, many thought that $80M offer while fair was an underpay ( because of all the expected interest he expected to gain from teams like HOU, NYY etc) .. Nobody could have predicted his market to suffer as much as it has.

I'm glad we didn't sign Fowler, just question why management bothers? For the most part, Toronto always has to prepare to overpay for the better players on the FA market they want.

The_Hater · Post #1097 » by **The_Hater** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 6:40 pm

Wo1verine wrote:
The_Hater wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:

Read on Twitter

I wouldn't want Fowler for 5 years - But our team allegedly wasn't even in the ballpark with a 4/$60M offer on the table.

For a management team that gets paid millions of $$$ they need to understand the market better and stop wasting time on players you have no chance at acquiring.

The Jays offered Edwin $80 million back in November, you could have made the exact same comment about that offer and yet now that looks like more money than he's going to get anywhere.

$60/4 was very close to what Fowler's market value was projected to be so that's far from an insult.

The market isn't stagnant and offers are put on the table to inspire negotiations. In Fowler's case, the market rose and in Edwin's case it shrunk.

I never mentioned it was an insult, just said why bother? When the $60M number was reported, we all knew ( or at least i did) Fowler wasn't coming here.
.

How could you possibly know this though? Fangraphs, who are generally fairly good at predicting contracts, had Fowler's deal at $64/4 so I'm not sure about the 'we' part. Seemed like a pretty solid opening offer to me until the 5th year changed everything.

CrookedJ · Post #1098 » by **CrookedJ** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 9:25 pm

I think if we offered 4/60 ( 15 per) and he got 5/82 ( 16.4 per ) that we were close enough that it was not insulting, or unreasonable to try. His camp wanted 17 a season and no one gave him that.

Its pretty clear that we did offer a fair deal to Edwin, no else is paying him.

The_Hater · Post #1099 » by **The_Hater** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 9:42 pm

wazabifuzz wrote:if pompey is stuck in AAA they should try and move him to get a more useful piece

If Pompey isn't useful himself, I'm not sure he's bringing something useful in return. His trade value has tanked the past 24 months.

Post #1100 » by **JaysRule15** » Fri Dec 9, 2016 9:58 pm

Yeah, Pompey is worth peanuts right now. That's one of the reasons you don't rush top prospects to the majors so fast. If they struggle in the majors during their debut, their trade value tanks and most of their accomplishments in the minors are forgotten. We're better off keeping Pompey and seeing what he has. Let him try to win a job in ST, otherwise send him to Buffalo.