Pitchers & Catchers Report 2/12/2025

[RIPPA]

The Rays have pushed back their opening game of the season one day (now March 28) to give them a little more time to get Steinbrenner Field ready for MLB play

[Pete]

Oh.

[RIPPA]

Oh yeah - Boras (via Heyman) is doing all the spin to be all THE YANKS ANGERED SOTO!!!! HE DIDNT GO TO THE METS BECAUSE OF MONEY!!!! IT IS TOTALLY THE YANKEES FAULT!!! spin

Supposedly another claim is that one time - security removed Soto's parents (or family member) from the stadium and Soto wasn't happy

[Kevin Wilson]

The crazier part to me with the Soto deal isn't the money, but the years. I know he hasn't been injury prone but injuries can happen to any player for any random reason, then a team is stuck with a broken player for ten years. I also still think its too much for a player that isn't great at defense or base running. Not that there is no value of course in being a great hitter but to get that type of money you'd think there would be some other perk. A unique case of 'right place, right time' with two rich owners both wanting him, I don't blame him one bit but I do wonder when the next player coming along will get that type of contract.

I read somewhere that besides Soto, the next happiest person to see that contract was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., next year's biggest Free Agent. I could be wrong (been wrong many times!) but I don't think Guerrero sniffs Soto's deal, I'm holding to my opinion this was more a 'perfect storm' one-off situation then the new norm for the top free agent every offseason. Still think he'll be in the Harper/Devers contract realm.

[RIPPA]

32 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

I read somewhere that besides Soto, the next happiest person to see that contract was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., next year's biggest Free Agent. I could be wrong (been wrong many times!) but I don't think Guerrero sniffs Soto's deal, I'm holding to my opinion this was more a 'perfect storm' one-off situation then the new norm for the top free agent every offseason. Still think he'll be in the Harper/Devers contract realm.

He isn't

It was Nightengale who threw out the thing about how Vlad Jr was gonna benefit and Nightengale is a well established idiot

[RIPPA]

So the Yankees pivoted by signing Max Fried to an Eight (?!?!?!?!?!) year, $218 million deal

Its the largest guarantee ever for a left handed pitcher

[RIPPA]

The Nationals won the draft lottery

Time to pick someone who in 10 years will sign a mega deal with another club

[RIPPA]

The Hot Stove has exploded

 

[Gorman]

Then the Guardians immediately traded Spencer Horwitz to Pittsburgh for pitcher Luis Ortiz and two prospects.

[RIPPA]

Rangers make a couple of moves

They are bringing back Nathan Eovaldi on a three year, $75 million dollar deal

They then acquired Jake Burger from the Marlins because of course the Marlins are rebuilding... again

[Dolfan in NYC]

The fuckin one player I liked on this stupid team, figuring he's not going anywhere because he's only making $800k.  And of course, pffffffffft... gone. 

Why do I bother.   Stupid baseball.

[SirFozzie]

We have an inter-sox trade, as Crochet to Boston for four prospects, Kyle Teel the biggest name on them. I like it a lot.

 

Watch him blow up his elbow in spring training.

[Craig H]

Looking more and more like Seiya Suzuki will waive his NTC for a trade from the Cubs to the Astros. Paredes would supposedly be included, which, who cares. But Suzuki is the best hitter on the team and has wanted to play in the OF instead of as DH, so, way to go Cubs.

I used to think Jed was just a useful idiot for Tom Ricketts to keep the team middling and just kinda/sorta good enough to keep fans filling seats. Now I just think he's a fucking idiot and is in way over his head as President of Baseball Ops. The team has the money to spend and Jed is spending it on losers and making moves that are just unbelievably dumb. They have a high payroll full of overpaid players. It's to the point where I can't even imagine Ricketts is THAT cynical.

BTW, I hate that title, President of Baseball Ops. They're the GM. 

[RIPPA]

Interesting little thing from the Juan Soto introductory press conference

Soto said he hadn't talked to any of his (now) former Yankee teammates since the season ended

Now while the NY media is gonna jump all over this to blame the Yanks (and more specifically Aaron Judge - who had said like a month or so ago that he wasn't gonna bother Soto about free agency and "give him some space") it was interesting the response I was seeing online from former players - which also seemed to be of the nature of "that should tell you everything you need to know about him as a teammate"

Does any of this mean anything? Absolutely not (and let's be honest the majority of us hate people and don't want to be bothered either) but it has been a.... thing to observe

[EdA]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Interesting little thing from the Juan Soto introductory press conference

Soto said he hadn't talked to any of his (now) former Yankee teammates since the season ended

Now while the NY media is gonna jump all over this to blame the Yanks (and more specifically Aaron Judge - who had said like a month or so ago that he wasn't gonna bother Soto about free agency and "give him some space") it was interesting the response I was seeing online from former players - which also seemed to be of the nature of "that should tell you everything you need to know about him as a teammate"

Does any of this mean anything? Absolutely not (and let's be honest the majority of us hate people and don't want to be bothered either) but it has been a.... thing to observe

In fairness I try not to talk to coworkers at work.  I definitely do not talk to them when I am not at work.

[RIPPA]

HOT STOVE~!

The Yanks are acquiring closer Devin Williams from the Brewers

Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin are being sent to Milwaukee (there might be more)

EDIT - It is Cortes, Durbin and cash. For those not familiar - Durbin is a late blooming prospect who just days ago Aaron Boone was saying was probably gonna be the starting 3B next season

[sabremike]

Mets are retiring David Wright's #5:

https://x.com/SNY_Mets/status/1867607758217904329?t=UGF27znsY2uADEvuXVxvHA&s=19

[RIPPA]

It looks like the Cubs are getting Kyle Tucker

Stros appear to be getting Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith (who was the Cubs first round pick this year) and a third player

[RIPPA]

 

[Craig H]

That Cubs trade...Jesus. Trading away a top prospect, maybe the top prospect, and Paredes (which, who cares about Paredes), for 1 year of Kyle Tucker is...so fucking dumb. Under maybe any other GM and owner it's a great fucking move, but the Cubs history in this era of big money extensions for top tier players is essentially non-existent and Tucker is going to command so much money next offseason if he's just as good this upcoming year. His fWAR for less than half a season was basically higher than most of the team combined.

Jed and Tom have not once given me any reason to have any sort of hope. All that hope basically died when they won a WS. So right now history dictates that the Cubs will be middling at the midseason point and will just wind up trading away Tucker and get not close to enough back in return OR Jed does nothing, the Cubs stay middling, they have another 83 or 83 win season and make no attempt to extend or re-sign Tucker.

It's also just a baffling trade. If the team had a bunch of studs and dudes who could just rake then adding Tucker for 1 year is like trying to find that last piece of the puzzle. They're such a middling team though that it's basically going to be him and Suzuki doing most of the hitting, Happ will have his annual 1 month hot streak, the pitching will be OK for the most part, and everyone else will be completely uninteresting to watch. I liked watch Miguel Amaya play in South Bend, but that was YEARS ago now. He can't hit at all. I'm not expecting a catcher that's going to set the league on fire with his hitting or anything, but a catcher who can hit just a little bit would be nice.

And the next domino to fall is going to be trading Bellinger to the Yankees if the Yankees can get Jed to agree on eating $10 mil of Belli's contract. 

[hammerva]

The MLB Network documentary on Mike Schmidt is really good but if you are a Philly guy you probably don't want to watch it because about 80% of the show is telling people how Philly sports fans are fucking assholes.   I know this isn't huge news but it really gets deep even after winning the World Series in 1980.   And how him just getting so frustrated that he called them out and making it so much worse.  

Edited December 15, 2024 by hammerva

[odessasteps]

As long as it included him wearing the wig. 

[hammerva]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

As long as it included him wearing the wig. 

It did.   So strange that wearing a wig after saying that he would have been more respected in places like Chicago is almost all that was needed to make a crowd support you

[Hamhock]

Yeah, there will always some level of toxicity in the Philly fanbase (as with any town’s fans that fancy themselves as hardscrabble), but it’s slowly improved over the decades. They were terrible when I was a kid during the Schmidt/Carlton era, and vile beyond measure during the 1960s. 

[RIPPA]

On 12/14/2024 at 10:56 PM, Craig H said:

And the next domino to fall is going to be trading Bellinger to the Yankees if the Yankees can get Jed to agree on eating $10 mil of Belli's contract. 

This is nit picky but per reports the two clubs are $10 million apart.

Everyone agreed that it started with the Cubs not wanting to eat any of the contract - which is pretty much a non-starter for any club

However, I highly doubt the Yanks are willing to pay Bellinger around $40 million for whatever the Cubs are asking for (which I can't imagine is just Will Warren). So reading the tea leaves - it would seem the Cubs are willing to pay a portion already - the Yanks just want them to cover more of it.