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Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

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Anthony Franco

2:00

Hey everyone, hope you all had a good week!

Jon Becker

2:00

Five teams have not signed a fully-guaranteed FA contract this offseason. Would you please predict one that each will sign, preferably with terms? The teams are CIN, OAK, KCR (Clarke's contract was split), CLE.

Anthony Franco

2:01

Only listed four here, and quickly scanning through, I believe those are the only four who haven't signed anyone to a fully guaranteed deal

CIN- Tommy Pham (1/6)

2:03

OAK- Going to need to backfill the rotation if they sell. I'll go Drew Smyly at 1/4 but a bunch of guys in that mold could work

KC- Kenley Jansen (2/24)

2:04

CLE- Some outfielder, don't love anyone there. Pham could work for them too, but for consistency's sake I'll leave him in CIN and put Corey Dickerson in Cleveland

At like 1/5

James

2:04

Hey MLB Trade Rumors, what is the chance that the Mets can sign Kris Bryant? And what would need to transpire for a potential signing to occur? Perhaps packaging McNeil, J.D Davis, Dom Smith to make roster room / salary room? Thanks

Anthony Franco

2:05

Won't rule anything with the Mets out entirely given how aggressive they've been this winter, but it's kind of a tough fit at this point

2:06

As you mention, they have a lot of other position players in the 3B/COF/DH mix already, and there'd be a pretty big logjam if you add Bryant too. I think pitching's the bigger focus coming out of the lockout

Snoozy

2:06

Thank you for doing these chats. I see trouble for the Giants next year. So many things went their way and they just can't expect all that magic dust to reappear. The next wave of rookies isn't ready yet. If you were Zaidi would you buy more pitching or an OF?

Anthony Franco

2:06

Both, which they should be able to do since the payroll's still around $75MM shy of the franchise record range

2:07

I think they'll be in the trade market for Sonny Gray or one of the Oakland starters. Free agency still has some outfield help, although it's mostly in the corners which probably means using Yaz fairly regularly in CF

2:08

That's not ideal, but I also have a decent amount of faith in their ability to leverage match-ups to get strong production out of guys, as they did in 2021

2:09

It's a tough battle in that division and I doubt they win 100+ games again, but I do think they'll be good and probably at least a Wild Card team

bobwebb655

2:09

Thank you for the chat today!
Max Scherzer will earn $43.333M in 2022. The entire Baltimore Orioles team earned $42.422M in 2021, while the entire Los Angeles Dodgers team earned $271.2M, which is 6.4 times more than the Baltimore Orioles.
12 teams spent less than $100M in 2021 and 2 of the 12 made the playoffs (17%)
15 teams spent $100M or more in 2021 and 6 of the 15 made the playoffs (40%)
3 teams spent $200M or more in 2021 and 2 of the 3 made the playoffs (67%)
If competitive balance is the goal………..
Baseball needs to stop rewarding the “tightwad tankers” with the highest draft picks and create a “soft spending floor” with financial penalties & draft pick penalties if they fail to comply.
Conversely………….
Baseball needs create a “soft spending ceiling” and penalize the “spend-a-holic” owners with harsh draft pick penalties and harsh financial penalties if they fail to comply.
Those financial penalties can be used to improve the quality of life for minor league players.

Anthony Franco

2:10

Eh, I don't know that the cap/floor thing really leads to competitive balance. Other leagues have caps that have a ton of parity, and it seems like the NBA (and to a lesser extent the NFL) have scenarios where good players sign with already great teams because their free agent earning power is capped

2:11

That wouldn't be as big an issue in MLB, since individual basketball players mean more to teams than individual baseball players do. But I think it's illustrative that simply evening out spending doesn't necessarily mean you level talent around the league

2:12

As for the floor, I feel like it's more likely we still see rebuilding but bad teams take on player-friendly contracts. Instead of spending $50M to take their 65-win roster to 73 wins, the Orioles take Eric Hosmer's contract from the Padres to "buy" Adrian Morejon and win 66 games in 2022

2:13

That's just an example, to be clear. I don't think the Padres and Orioles are actually discussing anything like that

Kirt

2:13

What does the Tampa Bay Rays 3B situation look like in 2022?

Anthony Franco

2:14

Probably a rotation of Yandy Díaz, Taylor Walls and Vidal Bruján. I'd guess Yandy sees a little more than half the starts when it's all said and done

Don

2:14

In the recent minor league Rule 5 draft, the Mariners picked a Mets' pitcher, Tommy Wilson, who they immediate traded to Baltimore for cash. The M's are rolling in cash right not, and whatever Wilson brought them wouldn't make a difference. Why would the M's do something like this? Do you think there's a quid pro quo for a future trade? Thanks.

Anthony Franco

2:15

No, I think you're reading too much into this. Teams flip major league Rule 5 picks for cash considerations basically every offseason

2:16

Just picking up marginal money and probably giving Wilson a slightly better opportunity of getting to the majors in Baltimore than he'd have had in Seattle

sgrossman

2:16

Who are most likely to be judged as having overpaid: the teams that filled most of their needs before the lock-out or those that have held back to do their major spending afterward?

Anthony Franco

2:17

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN wrote this week that he's heard from agents who are kind of worried that spending will dip once we come out of the lockout. It does seem like a lot of players feared that being the case and rushed to get something done by December 1

2:18

So, in that sense, I guess I feel like the teams that spent before the CBA expiration will probably end up spending a bit more per win than the teams that spend more heavily after. That said, for the most part, the pre-lockout deals lined up with what we'd expected

2:19

There were isolated instances (Semien, Báez and Avi García most notably) where a team went to a level I would not have were I a GM, but I understand in each case why they did so

Hugh Murris

2:20

Who might the Mets trade for starting pitching, and who do they have that had=s trade value?

Anthony Franco

2:20

Wouldn't be surprised if any of J.D. Davis, Dom Smith or Jeff McNeil opened the season somewhere else. I expect at least one of those three to be moved

2:21

McNeil would probably have the most appeal but also feels the least likely of that group to actually be traded

KYZR

2:21

Is there chatter regarding Cubs making a splash for Correa? Thx

Anthony Franco

2:22

Mark Berman reported on December 1 that the Cubs were among the teams that had been in contact with Correa's reps at some point this offseason

2:23

But it's not clear when that was or how earnestly they pursued him. Broadly speaking, I'd still be really surprised if the Cubs jumped that far in on a free agent. Ownership there just hasn't spent at that kind of level over the past few offseasons, and even with Correa, that's probably not a playoff team in 2022

George Hunt

2:23

Do you think Correa over played his hand? The fact Seager got 325 million from Texas. Is Seager better lol

Anthony Franco

2:24

I don't, I think he'll be fine. Correa's better than Seager, in my opinion -- the difference on defense is pretty substantial, although Seager might be a slightly better hitter. I think Correa beats $325M when it's all said and done

Dallas

2:24

I keep saying the Mets need to find another Colon - someone you can count on to pitch 200 innings even if the results aren't great. Who fits that mold this year?

Anthony Franco

2:25

I don't think you can bank on anyone to throw 200 innings anymore. Zack Wheeler, Walker Buehler, Adam Wainwright and Sandy Alcantara were the only guys to do that last season

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