mtutiger

There's so much discussion about the impetus to improve, yet I'm not sure that Brandon Drury or Wil Myers signing with other teams means much given the ultimate impact either one would have on the team is pretty small. Nor do I think it was ever realistic to expect them to be in play for bigger free agents this cycle. There just isn't a way to cheat code around the fact that the existing pieces on the roster, particularly the young players like Greene and Tork, need to play better in order to make up ground after winning 66 games in 2022. And that the organization needs to do a better job drafting and developing talent that can be utilized at the major league level and / or leveraged in trades. On the latter point, DD was able to do a lot of that, but it took a lot of pain to get there. Harris was maybe left a marginally better situation, but it's still not great and will take time. Overall, I think portions of the fanbase have been unrealistic in their expectations this offseason given the situation that Al left, and DD kind of stands as an example of that, the fact that it took four years to fix Randy Smith's mess. We all remember the good times but paper over the bad times

I don't see Cleveland being a gimme for Washington, nor the Jets a gimme for Seattle. Having said that, the Lions still have to take care of their own business, and today's performance raises a lot of questions on that front.

Hard to see a scenario where Drury was ever coming here even if the money were right. Thats the thing, you can make a good offer, but ultimately the player still has to accept.

He was. I don't buy that the two wouldn't want to work together, but Hinch is a manager who has a global view of an organization (owing to his background in front office roles) and I suspect he's probably able to judge a player's value fairly objectively. And also knows Correa well having managed him. Kinda seeing how this saga has played out (last offseason and this) has left me thinking the Tigers may not have lowballed and Hinch should have been taken more at face value when he stood behind the Baez signing

Just throwing it out there, but given that the Tigers employ his former manager in Houston, I wonder if he had insights / concerns about the leg injury during the time that they were negotiating last year. It's generally implied or is conventional wisdom that Hinch would have wanted Correa, but the level of familiarity also informs him on whatever flaws or weaknesses as a free agent option he had as well one would think.

Amazing how Chris I's offer for Correa all of a sudden looks reasonable 🤔

Gotta believe the Mets will follow through in the end right?

lol

Same as it ever was, really. The scenarios are all fun to talk about, everyone loves the Kornacki shtick, but just take it one week at a time.

You could argue that their rotation (particularly younger or high end prospect starters) could be appealing to the extent that their rotation is ancient compared to the rest of the league. It's really the only flaw I see when I look at them... a lot riding on Scherzer and Verlander

Four Years Ago Today...

Just my two cents, but his production as part of the Blue Jays organization shows why they may like him. Didn't walk a lot of guys and his K/9 was increasing before his trade. Not saying that the stuff with the A's/Las Vegas doesn't matter, but it's a little bit like Mario Feliciano and that they may want to attempt to reclaim some of what made him a ranked prospect in the Jays org. It may not work, but this approach is smart and Avila never really did stuff like this.

Logue appears to have basically nose-dived after the Matt Chapman trade... his numbers in the Jays system versus with the A's are night and day. Seems like a good project for Fetter and Co.

Speaking of Heyman

Neither do I. Thought experiment: what if, between now and the end of the offseason, they end up landing a couple of the remaining bigger names. For arguments sake, let's say it's Profar and Jean Segura. If those signings had happened at the end of the Winter Meetings versus in January, would people still be saying they "weren't active" this offseason? People don't like to hear it, but the free agency period isn't over yet. The offseason isn't over yet. You don't get bonus points for filling your holes in early December versus filling them in late January... the holes either get filled or they do not. I dont know what they will or won't do between now and the offseason. But the fact that they haven't signed for any of their stated offensive needs or the fact that the Jon Heyman types haven't thrown their name out (ie. laundered agent talking points) doesn't mean nothing will happen going forward.

The thing about Wenceel - and I like him and think hiss rebound as a prospect is legit - is that he still comes with injury concerns as well. If you kinda know what you have in Clemens (ie. not good at all) and, while the jury is out on Kreidler things didn't exactly look stellar on that front, I don't think it's likely that they pin all the hopes on Perez to break camp with the team when there are other options to explore still on the market.

I suspect it's more likely that they bring in someone else, even from the bargain bin (ie. Edwin Rios, Brian Anderson), over just rolling with hoping Perez is ready. Maybe some of it depends on whether they are looking at trades as well. But I don't believe it'll just be Kriedler/Clemens and wouldn't be a fan of it if that's how they pursued it.

This is more of the glass half empty view, but I almost feel that if it happened it would be more due to pitching than position players.... just as a lot of guys underperformed on the position player side, they maybe did get some overperformance from the pitchers.

With respect to Tucker, I saw someone point out how his 2 year deal with the Cubs gets him to 10 years of service time (assuming he's on the roster for the required amount of time).... Another one of those things that generally gets lost in these discussions about free agency, and I'm sure that was a factor in any negotiation he had.

Yeah, there's definitely something about the years thing with this market.... even Tucker Barnhart is getting two years lol

The flip side to that is that a big part of their 66 wins last year was an abnormal about of injuries and guys having bad seasons. And they have three guys coming into the next season (Meadows, Turnbull and Rogers) who were non-entities on the 2022 team and one expects they will contribute more than they did in 2022, which on its own makes them a better ballclub. Maybe 2022 was almost the inverse of 2021.... just as maybe it wasn't realistic guys to repeat performances from 2021, water can always find its level in 2023 versus a year like 2022 when nothing went right.

Meadows, Schoop and Baez would be 5-6 wins, Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson might be a 4-5 wins. So 9-11.... very rough from looking at WAR. Add in Spencer Turnbull, whose presence is probably worth another win or two if he performs well. Could maybe throw Jake Rogers into the mix, but I'm less sold.

I agree, although I do think the Tigers will make 1-2 additional signings when it is all said and done. Even if they don't satisfy everyone's desires for big names.

I sort of agree, although it's not clear to me that even a guy like Conforto was going to move the win needle all that much for a team that only won 66 games last year. That's a big reason why big named free agents tend to end up on teams on the precipice of contending, and it's not just about money.... similar to the "last mile" problem in transportation engineering and logistics, free agency is the thing that gets you across the finish line and from 80-85 wins to 90+ wins. Versus being something that you can completely remake a roster sub-70 win roster with. There are exceptions, but that's generally not how it works. A lot of the ground is gonna have to be made up from what is on the roster, and honestly I think it can be if a lot of things go right this year.

AJ Pollock