Winter 2017/18 non-NYM FA Deals

[Edgy MD]

Lind gives you a little more OBP and a little more outfield versatility. Adams had a great half season for Atlanta, but on a one-year dealio, I'll take Lind's modest track record, older though he may be.

[MFS62]

Alonso to the Indians.

https://247sports.com/tu/MjM1MTI2OHRpbnkyNDc=
Later

[smg58]

Ceetar wrote: smg58 wrote: Matt Adams to the Nationals for 1 year and 4 million. A good deal for the Nats, unfortunately. A neutral deal for the Nats. he's younger than Adam Lind but he's basically Adam Lind, slightly cheaper. This doesn't make the Nationals better in any way, though it didn't stop hack Joel Sherman from skewering the Mets for it.

Adams is a better fielder than Lind, in addition to being younger and cheaper. It fully replaces a valuable player from last year's team without hurting their ability to make other moves. As for skewering the Mets... it's not about money, at that price. Making room on the 25 for two left-handed first basemen is difficult. You could demote Smith, but (a) I'm convinced that Las Vegas is part of the problem where developing hitters is concerned, ( he's not going to have a .218 BABIP again, and © at some point you have show confidence in your young guys to play through initial struggles, otherwise you never develop anybody.

[Frayed Knot]

The Nationals are essentially just cycling through backup 1B-men while they fret about needing one full-time if/when Ryan Zimmerman falls off.
Tyler Moore gives way to Clint Robinson who was followed by Lind who now gives way to Adams.
Sort of the same-ish player each time. Only Robinson stuck around for more than a year and he wasn't nearly as good second go-around.
With guys like that, if they have a good season they try to cash in elsewhere and if not then you don't really want them back anyway.

[bmfc1]

Wade Davis to the Rockies. Another big market free agent signing.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He was probably attracted by their superior school system.

[Centerfield]

They signed Brian Shaw as well. You never know how a pitcher will react to Colorado, but that sounds like it could be a very good pen.

[Centerfield]

And I would have done this deal. Davis is tremendous and a difference maker in the pen.

I’m guessing they’ll have to shell out even more than this if they want to keep Familia next year.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Dyson to Arizona for 2/$7.5M. I feel a little like this would have been preferable to the Jay Bruce thing.

[Frayed Knot]

Really? A speed guy who'll turn 34 during the season (Aug), who's never been a full-timer (<400 PA each year), who carries sub-Duda-esque numbers vs LHPs (63 OPS+), and gets on base at a rate just a
hair above Bruce but with about 2% of the power (12 career HRs)?

[Centerfield]

JD Martinez to Boston. 5 years, $110. Front loaded, so he makes $25 per for the first 2 years.

Opt outs after years 2 and 3.

Very reasonable contract. Should have been all over this.

[Vic Sage]

Centerfield wrote: JD Martinez to Boston. 5 years, $110. Front loaded, so he makes $25 per for the first 2 years. Opt outs after years 2 and 3. Very reasonable contract. Should have been all over this.

Well, offering that deal to him would have meant not pursuing Bruce. Which is fine, but then Bruce signs elsewhere and, when Martinez signs up for that deal with Boston, we're left with... what... Dyson? So, we'd have to have paid substantially more than that to get Martinez away from an AL playoff team like BoSox, where he can win and DH.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, Bruce was the bird in the hand. I don't object to the way they played that.

[Centerfield]

Understood that timing is a factor, but at that price point, I would have liked for the Mets to be in on it.

If it didn't work out, there are still productive hitters available. Logan Morrison played some OF I think. Carlos Gonzalez is a reclamation project. You could sign Duda/Morrison for 1B, then sign Cargo as your reclamation. And Jay Bruce might still be available if the Mets didn't take him off the board.

Or you go with what you have and get Arrieta.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: Really? A speed guy who'll turn 34 during the season (Aug), who's never been a full-timer (<400 PA each year), who carries sub-Duda-esque numbers vs LHPs (63 OPS+), and gets on base at a rate just a hair above Bruce but with about 2% of the power (12 career HRs)?

The defense is, like, factor-of-ten better, and plays at three positions. The speed makes him a weapon on the basepaths, and he's shown just enough with the bat to make him about a 2.5- win guy in part-time duty over the past five seasons. His ability to hit righties (.267/.332/.392 career... and better in recent years) might have played very well in a platoon with Johnny Lags. And he ended up being about a quarter of the AAV price, with one less year.

[Edgy MD]

Dyson? I'm reluctant to buy that line.

The guy who has never gotten more than 400 plate appearances isn't a good bet to suddenly improve if given a bigger workload at 33. If anything, he'd just depress opportunities for Nimmo.

Matt den Dekker with a big league track record and a big league price tag. That's not nothing, but it's not something I want to bank on.

[Lefty Specialist]

Could they have done better if you replay the offseason? Maybe. But you couldn't be sure that FA's would have such a tough time getting offers. We're a week into spring training and Cobb/Arietta/Lynn are still sitting out there, and Martinez and Hosmer just signed. If you could have predicted that in October, I'd like to get stock tips from you.

While I'm not high on Vargas, at least they finally admitted that you can't wish for perfect health from the 'Big Five'. And with the Frazier signing they finally admitted that David Wright is never coming back in any significant capacity. Those two things could have hamstrung their thinking, but didn't.

Is it enough to snag a wild card? Dunno. But Dyson wouldn't have been a difference maker, especially since Conforto will miss a chunk of time to start the year.

[Edgy MD]

There's an unfortunate and unintended product of the collective bargaining system. It used to be that multiple classes of free agent signings would lead to multiple levels of compensation awarded from the signing teams to the forsaken teams. By freeing up the lesser classes of free agents from that seemingly onerous drag on their bargaining leverage, the idea was to make them more sign-able. But the problem is that they are more sign-able relative to the top class, the only class that is any longer tied to compensation. Freeing up the secondary classes isn't helping them so much as hurting the top classes.

Anyway, that's how I'm seeing the unintended market effect play out.

[nymr83]

That may be part of it. To me, the #1 issue is the Florida fire sale that essentially replaced a big free agent acquisition for 3 teams. After that, the number of teams tanking and not interested in expensive upgrades is #2. #3 is the luxury tax - not the fact that it exists, bit the strucutre - by getting under for one year the league's two biggest spenders are setting themselves up for several years of paying a lower multiple on going over - which they fully intend to do next year for Harper, Machado, anf Donaldson.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That's a good point. The Tampa Fake Rays are also screwing up the game for everyone.

[Guest sharpie]

Well they did just sign our old friend Carlos Gomez.

[Edgy MD]

The Pirates: also tearing down the engine this winter.