The Moustakas thing seems to support the players' argument that free agency is broken. With no long-term commitment, theoretically he should be able to make more season than a reasonable projection, but it doesn't seem like that's happened either year.
Rob Manfred says there will be a pitch clock in spring training to prepare for the regular season. In spring training, he said, "You will see pitch clocks in those games." Manfred said he is not committing to a pitch clock in the regular season at this point, but he can unilaterally implement it. He said he wants to come to an agreement with the players. Using it in spring training does not necessarily mean MLB will do so in the regular season. Manfred says there won’t be any penalties for pitch clock violations in spring training. Just about giving everyone a chance to get used to it. Rob Manfred: “There has been no meaningful change in the distribution of winning percentages in Major League Baseball. This narrative that our teams aren’t trying is just not supported by the facts.” Rob Manfred: "I reject the notion that payroll is a good measure for how much a team is trying or how successful that team is going to be."
Despite what Manfred is thinking, there are fewer teams that are really solid bets to contend.... and those are seemingly the only teams that would enter a bidding war for a 30+ year old free agent. As it is, most contending teams weren't in the market for a 30+ FA 3B, so there was no bidding war.
It would be a sick lineup. And it wouldn’t necessarily mean Reddick would have to be traded. White or Marisnick could also be sent out. Most likely, they could sign Harper and hold on to Kemp/White until opening day (or until they got a trade offer they liked). If nobody got hurt they could trade White for whatever they could get. Not a huge loss. Harper would play LF, Brantley would DH. CF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve LF Harper SS Correa DH Brantley 1B Gurriel RF Reddick C Chirinos Bench: White/Diaz, Marisnick, Stassi Certainly a stacked lineup, and 1-6 would match up with any team in history. But 7-9 are still just 3 league average hitters. Another (less likely) thing they could do is option Diaz, making White the 1B and putting Gurriel in a utility role.
At the time, I'd think he still likely would have rejected it because he thought he was going to get a big multi-year offer - meaning it would have been a free draft pick for the Astros. Unless the Astros and Marwin both knew better, it still seems like a weird decision.
Derek Dietrich to the Reds on a minors deal, $2M if he makes the roster. Not a good sign for Marwin. I would rather have Dietrich in Houston than Marwin. Not as good defensively but a better overall hitter. Moustakas taking $10M/1yr is also not a good sign for Marwin. He will be lucky to get $8M/1yr at this point.
Every passing day makes me think he could actually come home on either a short-term "prove it" deal (a la 1y5m), or a longer term deal that's too good for both sides to pass up, a la 2-3y and 8 to 10m.
Who goes? Kemp? Marisnick? Diaz? White? If the price comes down enough I'm not against bringing him back. I just wonder what moves Luhnow would make. Maybe trade Kemp?
Yeah, we’ll see. I never really expected Marwin to come back, but Dietrich signing a MiLB deal is pretty telling/concerning for Marwin. IF Marwin actually returned, I think optioning Diaz is the fallback. I think we try to trade one of Diaz, Kemp, Marisnick in that order, and option Diaz in the meantime and let the rest play out. Edit: unrelated but I can’t not share this:
Astros have the best uniforms in sports. Awesome logo. They could run this thing out forever, just mix in an alternate every now and then to keep it fresh for the jersey buying crowd.
Kemp seems like the obvious target to go. He's a 25th/26th man, slightly above replacement level. You feel slightly bad about waiving him, but not that bad.
