MLB MLB OFFSEASON (2016-2017) THREAD

[ChesterCopperpot]

Cespedes back to the Mets - 4 years, $110million

[sabremike]

20 minutes ago, ChesterCopperpot said:

Cespedes back to the Mets - 4 years, $110million

*Does happy dance*

[Dolfan in NYC]

So, Jay Bruce is getting paid $13 million to sit on his ass?  

Also, Edinson Volquez to Miami,  2/22 guaranteed

[sabremike]

44 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

So, Jay Bruce is getting paid $13 million to sit on his ass?  

Also, Edinson Volquez to Miami,  2/22 guaranteed

Nope, he's going to be traded as he was disaster insurance. And since disaster was avoided he can be jettisoned.

[FireThunder]

Cubs sign John Jay to a 1 year, $8 mil deal.  Really good signing, but it probably means that Dex isn't in their plans this offseason.

[Jiji]

I miss piranesi's posts on Jon Jay playing in the Cardinal outfield.

[The Man Known as Dan]

CBA gets done, Encaracion might be going to Houston, which makes there lineup a damn nightmare, and the Pirates are almost 100% trading Cutch and nobody has talked about any of it?

[grilledcheese]

I just saw the thing about McCutchen like 15 minutes ago, some folks are saying WAS is a good fit so that they could move Trea Turner back to SS. I would assume that PIT would want pitching and/or high level prospects for him, and what does WAS have that fits that bill?

[Ryan]

Brewers randomly signed Eric Thames out of nowhere back from S. Korea, so we'll see if any of that transfers back here or he just goes back to being a mediocre semi-power guy.

[RIPPA]

58 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Brewers randomly signed Eric Thames out of nowhere back from S. Korea, so we'll see if any of that transfers back here or he just goes back to being a mediocre semi-power guy.

Why do you hate my post's - especially when they reference you?

[RIPPA]

Reports are that as part of the new CBA - the All-Star game will no longer count (ie: no longer determine home field in the WS)

EDIT - also luxury tax was increased, no changes to roster size and the QO system was overhauled again, hard bonus cap for international signees, the As will be "phased out of receiving revenue-sharing"

Full details - http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/11/mlb-mlbpa-agree-to-new-collective-bargaining-agreement.html

[EdA]

And a 10 Day DL!!!!!

Clearly this was just to make fantasy nerds happy.

 

[RIPPA]

Also to clarify on the ASG one - they are finally going to just "Whoever has the best regular season record will have home field"

[Dolfan in NYC]

Fucking finally.  I was pulling for Cleveland in the last series, but it was complete bs that they had home field advantage over 103-win Chicago.

[gatling]

6 hours ago, grilledcheese said:

I just saw the thing about McCutchen like 15 minutes ago, some folks are saying WAS is a good fit so that they could move Trea Turner back to SS. I would assume that PIT would want pitching and/or high level prospects for him, and what does WAS have that fits that bill?

Assuming Lucas Giolito and Victor Robles are off limits(and from the sound of things, no one wants to move top tier prospects for McCutchen), the Nats would have pitchers like A.J. Cole, Austin Voth, Erick Fedde(in AA), and Reynaldo Lopez all with 6 years of control as well as Joe Ross with 5 years of control.  OF Juan Soto has had some top 100 prospect buzz but is four or five years away, not sure if by high level you mean prospect ranking/value or upper minors/near ready prospects.  

I could see two of the arms plus Soto as a decent return if the prevailing opinion really is McCutchen isn't bouncing back to MVP level production, and that seems to be the thinking of teams looking to acquire him.

[EdA]

10 minutes ago, gatling said:

Assuming Lucas Giolito and Victor Robles are off limits(and from the sound of things, no one wants to move top tier prospects for McCutchen), the Nats would have pitchers like A.J. Cole, Austin Voth, Erick Fedde(in AA), and Reynaldo Lopez all with 6 years of control as well as Joe Ross with 5 years of control.  OF Juan Soto has had some top 100 prospect buzz but is four or five years away, not sure if by high level you mean prospect ranking/value or upper minors/near ready prospects.  

I could see two of the arms plus Soto as a decent return if the prevailing opinion really is McCutchen isn't bouncing back to MVP level production, and that seems to be the thinking of teams looking to acquire him.

Yeah.  Plus...ugh...if one is to believe D stats (and there are plenty of reasons not to), Cutch is not a CFer anymore.  So if you are buying Cutch, you are now buying a LFer instead of a CFer and that kind of cuts his value ON TOP of his poor season last year.  My guess is the Pirates might settle for a top arm and a couple of mid-range position prospects.

[EdA]

4 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Reports are that as part of the new CBA - the All-Star game will no longer count (ie: no longer determine home field in the WS)

EDIT - also luxury tax was increased, no changes to roster size and the QO system was overhauled again, hard bonus cap for international signees, the As will be "phased out of receiving revenue-sharing"

Full details - http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/11/mlb-mlbpa-agree-to-new-collective-bargaining-agreement.html

And this also from Trade Rumors made Phil a happy man...

In other team-specific news, the Yankees seem likely to benefit under the new deal, per Rosenthal (Twitter links). Beyond the removal of the revenue-sharing multiplier previously reported, the organization will keep revenue-sharing offsets related to the fact that it paid for its new ballpark.

[gatling]

7 minutes ago, EdA said:

Yeah.  Plus...ugh...if one is to believe D stats (and there are plenty of reasons not to), Cutch is not a CFer anymore.  So if you are buying Cutch, you are now buying a LFer instead of a CFer and that kind of cuts his value ON TOP of his poor season last year.  My guess is the Pirates might settle for a top arm and a couple of mid-range position prospects.

Yeah, according to Fangraphs, he's really only been ok in CF three out of eight years, four if you want to be generous.  But he fell off a cliff by all metrics this past year it seems.  Maybe the Nats in-house metrics show a Cutch as a better defender than the publicly available info?  I know the prevailing opinion might be to move Turner back to SS, but maybe putting him at 2B and sliding Daniel Murphy to 1B and Ryan Zimmerman to the bench might be better?  The Nats are on the hook for three more years with Zimmerman, but he's been awful for three years running.  Espinosa's bat hasn't been great but he was the better hitter of the two last year and his defense has been solid.

I don't know the Nats system well enough to pick out a couple of mid tier position prospects, but I could buy that type of return.  Hard to believe, the return would have been huge a year ago.  I hope McCutchen bounces back, I've been a fan of his since he was in the minors.

[RIPPA]

Well all the local reports are saying that the Nats are willing to consider giving up Robles - it is more a matter how much else the Pirates want

[The Man Known as Dan]

For the record, you can tell Cutch isn't a great defender by just watching him now. Range is very limited.

 

BTW, something potentially huge I've seen some reports on: Potentially teams may be allowed to trade draft picks now.

[gatling]

1 hour ago, gatling said:

Yeah, according to Fangraphs, he's really only been ok in CF three out of eight years, four if you want to be generous.  But he fell off a cliff by all metrics this past year it seems.  Maybe the Nats in-house metrics show a Cutch as a better defender than the publicly available info?  I know the prevailing opinion might be to move Turner back to SS, but maybe putting him at 2B and sliding Daniel Murphy to 1B and Ryan Zimmerman to the bench might be better?  The Nats are on the hook for three more years with Zimmerman, but he's been awful for three years running.  Espinosa's bat hasn't been great but he was the better hitter of the two last year and his defense has been solid.

I don't know the Nats system well enough to pick out a couple of mid tier position prospects, but I could buy that type of return.  Hard to believe, the return would have been huge a year ago.  I hope McCutchen bounces back, I've been a fan of his since he was in the minors.

So much for all that, sounds like the Nats would non-tender Espinosa if they get a McCutchen deal done.  I'm definitely surprised the Nats are willing to move Robles, I would have thought he was untouchable.  But I guess they want to get a deal done ASAP, so no point in dicking around on the negotiations.

[EdA]

1 hour ago, El Dragon said:

BTW, something potentially huge I've seen some reports on: Potentially teams may be allowed to trade draft picks now.

I've seen that hinted at but nothing has come out on that yet.  Trade Rumors' newest recap of the CBA mentions nothing on that but not everything has been released yet, I guess.

One thing that has recently come out is:

TODAY: Notably, teams can trade all of the new international bonus allotments, per Passan (Twitter links). Alternatively, they may boost their spending by adding up to 75% of their initial spending capacity.

[odessasteps]

 

[grilledcheese]

3 hours ago, gatling said:

Assuming Lucas Giolito and Victor Robles are off limits(and from the sound of things, no one wants to move top tier prospects for McCutchen), the Nats would have pitchers like A.J. Cole, Austin Voth, Erick Fedde(in AA), and Reynaldo Lopez all with 6 years of control as well as Joe Ross with 5 years of control.  OF Juan Soto has had some top 100 prospect buzz but is four or five years away, not sure if by high level you mean prospect ranking/value or upper minors/near ready prospects.  

I could see two of the arms plus Soto as a decent return if the prevailing opinion really is McCutchen isn't bouncing back to MVP level production, and that seems to be the thinking of teams looking to acquire him.

I was thinking more along the lines of near ready guys, as McCutchen probably doesn't bring high value prospects with the regression of his play this year. Joe Ross was the first guy that came to mind, but I also don't know fuck-all about what they have in the pipeline. I have to assume that Gio is probably not going to be a piece in the deal, but he was another guy I thought could be a good target for PIT. He's also relatively cheap, with an option that becomes a guarantee with 180 innings in 2017, which is a number that he would likely hit, he's been close the last couple years and above that number in every year he's been a full time starter except for 2014.

[RIPPA]

From the Wash Post article back around the time the Nats were about to pick up Gio's option

Quote

But because young (though right-handed) starters like Joe Ross, Reynaldo Lopez, A.J. Cole, Lucas Giolito and even Erick Fedde are nearly ready for major-league duty, the Nationals could afford to jettison Gonzalez from their crowd of potential 2017 starters. They would almost certainly find suitors in what is widely regarded as a weak and shallow free agent starting pitching market. 

So yeah - Gio is the person the Nats are moving if they deal a pitcher