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Chat With MLBTR's Steve Adams: 2/5/19
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Al Avila
4:06
Speaking of Zimmerman wont somebody make me an offer for Jordan Zimmermann or will I have to hope he stays healthy and pitches well enough to trade him in July?
Steve Adams
4:08
That'd be Tigers GM Al Avila ... and no one is making any kind of offer for Zimmermann. when he has $50MM remaining through 2020. Plus, he can still block trades to 19 teams, and signing in the Midwest (he's a Wisconsin native) was important to him in free agency.

Even with a huge first half, the Tigers would have to eat an enormous sum of money to move him. Hell, they had to pay down some of Verlander's contract in that trade.
Henry Rowengartner
4:10
What happens first:
Realmuto traded
Harper signs
Machado signs
Steve Adams
4:10
Which happens first?
Realmuto trade (33.6% | 555 votes)
 
Manny signs (13.2% | 218 votes)
 
Bryce signs (13.2% | 218 votes)
 
Hell literally freezes over. (40% | 661 votes)
 
Total Votes: 1,652
Dave D.
4:11
Why wasn't there much talk about a JBJ trade? I feel like a lot of teams would need him.
Steve Adams
4:11
Probably because the Sox don't desperately want to trade him
Stroman
4:12
Am I seriously being traded?
Steve Adams
4:12
This summer quite possibly. Between now and Opening Day, I doubt it.
Hell, MI
4:13
Your poll is out of date.  Hell, MI has already frozen over.
https://5newsonline.com/2019/01/31/its-official-hell-has-frozen-over-h...
Steve Adams
4:13
Gadzooks.
Stephen
4:14
Amir Garrett for Juan Lagares
Steve Adams
4:14
No chance the Reds do that.
coachhaynes4
4:16
Which one will sign with  the Yankees Brice or Manny?
Steve Adams
4:16
Neither?
Giants
4:16
Will Smith for JBJ make sense for both teams?
Steve Adams
4:16
Giants want longer-term pieces than JBJ
Sprinkles
4:17
Face it, Schwarber is a DH. Which AL team would be interested?
Steve Adams
4:18
I don't really buy the UZR jump last season -- at least not to its full extent -- but he's busted his ass to become passable out there and is less of a DH than guys like Castellanos, Mancini and Kemp, in my eyes.
Jeff
4:19
Clint Frazier for Julio Teheran?
Steve Adams
4:19
Braves fan?
(No, the Yankees don't do that)
Dallas Keuchel
4:20
Which team is the best fit for me?
Steve Adams
4:21
Roster-wise, I don't think there's any one team that's a clear best fit. He'd improve pretty much any rotation in baseball. In terms of payroll flexibility, the Twins and Blue Jays are leading the way in long-term flexibility
DB
4:23
Kimbral to the WSox make any sense?
Steve Adams
4:24
Their front office has made such a point of pursuing big fish that, yeah, I can see them going after Kimbrel or Keuchel if they miss out on Machado and Harper (assuming Bryce and Manny sign first, which obviously isn't a given)
TX Ranger J Daniels
4:25
Would 4/64 get Keuchel with opt out after 2020?
Steve Adams
4:26
At this point I have to think it'd tempt him. I do wonder if he'd prefer something more like 3/60 with a "dual" option like the ones Boras has worked into the Arrieta, Kikuchi and Britton deals. A smaller-scale version of Arrieta's deal basically -- get the huge AAV, then have the chance to opt out after 2020 unless the signing team opts into a one- or two-year extension.
Nats
4:27
If Harper doesn't resign with the Nats, you think they'd reallocate those funds elsewhere to, say, Kimbrel or Keuchel?
Steve Adams
4:27
I think Harper is viewed as the lone exception for which they'd surpass the luxury tax. Maybe they would for a Rendon extension right now, too, but I don't otherwise see it happening.
Jay Z
4:27
Does this slow offseason hurt baseball overall?
Steve Adams
4:31
I think so, on multiple levels. An exciting offseason generates a lot of fan interest and gets more eyes on the sport. This (and last winter) have largely failed to do so.

There's also the broader-scale picture that the slow offseason is a byproduct of so many teams flat-out not trying to win because the current CBA incentivizes losing. Losing is the only way to get larger draft and international pools, and now that both have hard-slotted systems, that's the only way to build a talent base.

Ten years ago, a team like the Tigers or Rangers might've still been spending gobs of money in free agency and also just upped their spending in the draft/international free agency to try to boost their pipeline of amateur talent. That's not an option anymore, so you get teams wholly sitting out free agency because there's no benefit to being a team projected at 78 wins. Teams who win 78-80 games and are semi-competitive aren't rewarded for trying to win. They're penalized under this system.
So you get a ton of teams not bothering to try, which hurts those teams because no one wants to go watch a 67-win team when everyone knows the front office isn't trying.
4:32
That, conversely, leads to tons of cheap one-year deals for the teams who sit and wait out free agency, knowing a third of the league isn't going to sign anyone of note.
And those one-year deals flood the following offseason market with more free agents, which leads to the hellhole that is the 2018-19 offseason.
Spoiler alert: 2019-20 is probably going to suck, too.
The grinch
4:33
This slow off-season allows smaller market teams to get in the Harper race, doesn't it?
Steve Adams
4:33
It should! But they apparently aren't doing it.
STEVE
4:35
Would a qualifying offer set by an arbitrator per player that would include multiple years be a solution to look into. This one year getting turned down by 95% of the players then attaching a draft pick to him is getting old.
Steve Adams
4:36
That doesn't sound entirely dissimilar from the old Type A/B free agents being offered arbitration -- and that system didn't work that well, either. I'd rather just see the tie between the draft and free agency severed entirely.
Wtf are the Giants doing?
4:37
Why do the Giants keep claiming players and then designating the player they just picked up previously for assignment
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