Winter '19-'20 non-NYM related moves

[Frayed Knot]

A few comings and goings over the last few days. These will be the first of many.



- Yanx decline option on slugger Edwin Encarnacion, bought him out actually ($5M) rather than pay him $25



- Indians pick up the option on RHP Corey Kluber despite the fact that he'll turn 34 y/o just after Opening Day and pitched just 35 innings this past year, none after May 1st.



- Brewers Yasmani Grandal © and Mike Moustakas (1B?, 2B?, 3B?) both decline player options and will be FAs this winter

[Frayed Knot]

Aroldis Chapman opts NOT to opt-out after being enticed by the pre-deadline extension he got from the Yanx which tacks on the 2022 season on top of the '20 & '21 seasons that were already in the contract.

[seawolf17]

Stony Brook alums in the news, as Travis Jankowski, DFAed by the Padres, gets picked up by the Reds, and Nick Tropeano, DFAed by the Angels, heads off to free agency and will hopefully get a non-roster invite from someone this spring.

[Frayed Knot]

Mako Shark doo doo doo doo doo doo do - Mako Shark doo doo ...



Gerrado Parra signs with the Yomiuri Giants

[Frayed Knot]

Although it would be understandable if you thought he has already been out of the game for years now, the Yanx released Jacoby Ellsbury today in order to clear room on their 40 man roster.

'Stealing him' away from the BoSox by signing to a $148 million FA deal in December of 2013, Ellsbury totaled just over 2,000 PAs as a Yanqui and a .264/.330/.386 slash line over pieces of

four seasons (2014-17) in what might be described as the most stunningly bad FA deal in history. Ellsbury was last seen pinch-running in Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS. He then went on to miss

all of 2018 & 2019 and so the Yanx will now pay off the remainder of his contract for the 2020 plus a $5 million buyout for 2021.



And before someone adds that of course they ate the money it's what they do, this is actually NOT what the Yanx typically do. I can't remember the last time they even agreed to eat a small contract

much less something even coming close to this large. They even kept Kei Igawa on the payroll for the entire length of his five-year deal despite most of that money being paid up front and far past

the time it was obvious that he'd never again pitch in the major leagues. So for four seasons Igawa commuted from his home in Manhattan to make over 100 starts for ScrantonWilkes-Barre to earn

his contract which, for the Yanx especially, amounted to tiny fraction of their overall payroll (some $3/yr).

[Centerfield]

It's reasonable to expect long-term contracts to be a burden on payroll by the end, but it's rare that a contract looks bad on the day it's signed. Even Jason Bay wasn't as immediately bad.



Ellsbury probably hit enough to warrant that value even in his prime (.789 career OPS with Boston). He had a monster 2011, but was otherwise, unspectacular. He did give you value with his speed, but signing a speed guy on the wrong side of 30 generally isn't a great idea.



You figure taking him from Boston after their championship was part of the motivation. I wish the Yankees would go back to making these types of moves.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yasmani Grandal signs with White Sox

[TransMonk]

The White Sox are looking like they could be really good to me. They needed a couple veteran pieces to round out the roster and adding Grandal is a sign that they are ready to go for it.

[bmfc1]

Good--he's out of the league. Now Cole needs to go to the Angels, Rendon to the Rangers and Strasburg anywhere else.

[smg58]

Good--he's out of the league. Now Cole needs to go to the Mets, Rendon to the Rangers and Strasburg anywhere else.

[bmfc1]

=smg58 post_id=26940 time=1574362457 user_id=62]
Good--he's out of the league. Now Cole needs to go to the Mets, Rendon to the Rangers and Strasburg anywhere else.

[Frayed Knot]

And now it becomes more understandable why the Yanquis reversed their usual method of sticking through a contract in the Ellsbury case ... because they plan to file grievances to get as much of it as possible back.

Claiming that he sought and received treatment not authorized by the club, one he clears waivers (at which point he'll no longer be in their employ) the Yanx will file paperwork with the idea of getting the remaining

season of his contract changed to a non-guaranteed one. It is also possible that they'll try to recoup some of the money already paid to him although that's not clear at this time.

[smg58]

I'd be surprised if the Yankees get anywhere with that, unless the treatment actually made the issue worse. If the treatment did nothing, or actually made it possible for Ellsbury to get on the field this year, what's their argument?

[Frayed Knot]

Their argument is that they're pissed off that they spent too much money for a player and, rather than admit that it was their fault for misjudging him, they're using this as an excuse to claw back some of the money.

They did this with Giambi once they were shocked, SHOCKED to discover that there were steroids going on in the back of Rick's Cafe, and they tried the same with ARod. All bad investments but none were their fault

as long as you can blame it on the player somehow. They had no case whatsoever with Giambi, especially after THEY specifically crossed out any references to steroids as a clause in his contract, and wound up dropping

the matter once he bounced back after one lost season. They wound up settling with ARod for some undisclosed sum in lieu of the final year of his contract just to make him shut up and go away.

[bmfc1]

Get the tribute video ready, Travis is back in the NL East:

https://twitter.com/Braves/status/1198713117649383429/photo/1https://twitter.com/Braves/status/1198713117649383429/photo/1

[smg58]

Not a bad haul for a guy who looked done this time last year. (Hell, he still looked done in June.) I wouldn't have thought that a .745 OPS plus meh defense would be worth that much, but we didn't get a whole lot more than that from Ramos.

[Frayed Knot]

This makes the Braves the first team to pull off the d'Arnaud d'Aily d'Ouble (though not concurrently) having previously employed older brother Chase d'Arnaud (32) in 2016 & 2017

Chase split 2019 between the Rangers and Royals AAA affiliates hitting ... ummm, not very well, and he doesn't have the luxury of hiding a weak bat behind calling himself a catcher.

[bmfc1]

While the Mets are hiring coaches, other teams continue to acquire players. The Brewers traded the BASTARD who made the critical error that lead to WSH scoring the go-ahead run in the Wild Card game. It wasn't all his fault, it was mostly that SOB Josh Hader. You can see that I'm over it. Anyway, here's the trade:

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1199730650523275264https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1199730650523275264

[MFS62]

Indians/Bosox trade.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/red-sox-trade-c-leon-170444631.htmlhttps://www.yahoo.com/news/red-sox-trade-c-leon-170444631.html

Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Reds sign Moustakas

[bmfc1]

The Braves keep improving:

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1202276084273819649https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1202276084273819649

[bmfc1]

Gerrit Cole to the MFYs. Good. Keep him out of the NL.

[LWFS]

=bmfc1 post_id=27726 time=1575561731 user_id=73]
Gerrit Cole to the MFYs. Good. Keep him out of the NL.

[G-Fafif]

Corey Kluber to the Rangers. DeShields the younger headed to headed to Cleveland along with hard-throwing righty reliever Emmanuel Clase.

[smg58]

Kluber would have cost the Mets as much money this season as Wacha and Porcello. The Rangers ponied up a glove-first centerfielder and a relief prospect. That was a more than agreeable price for a guy who was as good as DeGrom from 2014-2018.

[bmfc1]

Madison Bumgarner to the Diamondbacks.

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1206333754182111237https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1206333754182111237

[Edgy MD]

I have no good reason for feeling this way, but feel like Bumgarner is at the end of his run.



I kind of associate San Francisco pitchers with breaking down mid career. Tim Lincecum went south at 28. Johnny Cueto has mostly fallen off the map. Matt Cain was farty after 27. Barry Zito mostly lost it the minute he came to San Francisco.



Obviously these are only related at the most specious level, but that's the impression I tend to get.

[smg58]

Bumgarner just turned 30 (as somebody else pointed out, he has less than a year on Wheeler). His numbers, other than the long ball, were very good last year. It might only take a real baseball to put him back in the upper echelon of starting pitchers, plus it's not abnormal for pitchers to move up their second full season after an injury. Getting him for $33M less than Wheeler was highway robbery.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that point shouldn't be lost.



And it takes Wheeler twice as long as other guys to return from injury.

[Guest 41Forever]

I thought of him as kind of the face of the Giants. Some pundits I heard last week were saying he was worth more to the Giants than any other team, and that MLB was better off with him on the Giants. (Might have been Jeff Passen on the Baseball Tonight podcast.)



Was there some kind of falling out?