His market value according to Spotrac is $21 million (it's likely WAY more than that), and he's in the running for the NL Cy Young. James Click did say that the team wants flexibility moving forward, and they already have $33 million and $24 million in Verlander and Greinke tied up, respectively.
It's always funny watching closer discussion. Pressly blew no leads, and only allowed runs and multiple baserunners once (in a blowout). He successfully closed out every game he came into, yet people act like he was constantly wetting the bed. I'm not saying Pressly is Rivera 2.0, he makes me nervous too, but you need to be careful what you ask for with the grass is greener mentality so many fans have. The list of closers who have been consistently great is a lot shorter than you would think. Odds are more likely we replace him with a gas can than we replace him with somebody significantly better. If we have a young arm who is consistently dominating, and he can't do the job, then you make the move you have to. As is, we have no such proven young arm.
Dodger history excluded, Kike and Trienen could be interesting adds. Will be interesting to see what both fetch. I agree with previous posters...this may be a great offseason to bring in several vets as opposed to one big splash. There are a lot of good players available. unrelated, but this is surprising:
Agree with a lot of this, but how could Correa be “primed to hit the market at a great time?” seems to me it will be one of the worst times possible. Even with a vaccine baseball would be a year removed from what is likely its worst financial year ever, and will likely be looking at major labor issues. Couple that with him being 1 of the SS in the best SS free agent class ever, and some of baseballs biggest spenders already having a good to great SS, I think the timing is terrible for Carlos to hit free agency He probably needs Covid to end and mlb to play a full 162 game season more than anyone in baseball, if he doesn’t get that chance to show he can make it through a full season health wise, he could be greatly disappointed by his next contract
With all these players hitting the market due to declined options, GMs will really price their worth this offseason even more so than normal. I especially think there will some excellent values available in free agency on the pitching side. Whichever front office can target the right reclamation arms will gain a big advantage. We are going to see guys like Odorizzi and Kluber sign for a fraction of what they might’ve been worth 18 months ago. I am liking how this lines up for Click, assuming Houston isn’t relatively worse off financially than other teams.
While I agree that spending should be down in 2021 overall, there will always be a spender(s) to pick up the deals when no one else is. Those clubs that can financially swing the spending could build up their club in a hurry. I don't know what the market will be like. Just posing a hypothetical. This could turn into the deep pocket teams putting even more distance between them and the lesser spending teams.
While I’m admittedly not an economist, I would think that the economy will be better by the start of the 2022 regular season. I would assume by that point, fans will be allowed at a more normal capacity and things will ramp up back to normal as they were pre COVID. I could be wrong, but that’s my guess. COVID will have a lot of long lasting effects in the economy, but once teams can host fans again, I would think sports-related payroll concerns will go back to normal.
Available FA Starting Pitchers Spoiler Brett Anderson (33) Chase Anderson (33) – $9.5MM club option with a $500K buyout Chris Archer (32) – $11MM club option with a $250K buyout Jake Arrieta (35) Homer Bailey (35) Trevor Bauer (30) Trevor Cahill (33) Tyler Chatwood (31) Anthony DeSclafani (31) Robbie Erlin (30) Mike Fiers (36) Kevin Gausman (30) Zack Godley (31) Gio Gonzalez (35) — $7MM club option with a $500K buyout Cole Hamels (37) J.A. Happ (38) Rich Hill (41) Merrill Kelly (32) — $4.25MM club option with a $500K buyout Corey Kluber (35) — $17.5MM club option with a $1MM buyout Mike Leake (33) Wade LeBlanc (36) Jon Lester (37) — $25MM mutual option with a $10MM buyout Tommy Milone (34) Mike Minor (33) Matt Moore (32) Charlie Morton (37) — $15MM club option with no buyout Jimmy Nelson (32) — $2MM club option (can become $9MM mutual option based on innings total) Ivan Nova (34) Jake Odorizzi (31) James Paxton (32) Martin Perez (30) — $6.25MM club option with a $500K buyout Rick Porcello (32) Jose Quintana (32) Robbie Ray (29) Garrett Richards (33) Tyson Ross (34) Jeff Samardzija (36) Anibal Sanchez (37) Matt Shoemaker (34) Drew Smyly (32) Marcus Stroman (30) Masahiro Tanaka (32) Julio Teheran (30) Michael Wacha (29) Adam Wainwright (39) Taijuan Walker (28) Alex Wood (30) Jordan Zimmermann (35) RH Relievers Spoiler Pedro Baez (33) Anthony Bass (33) Dellin Betances (33) — $6MM player option with a $3MM buyout Brad Boxberger (33) Brad Brach (35) Jesse Chavez (37) Steve Cishek (35) — $6.75MM club option with a $750K buyout Tyler Clippard (36) Alex Colome (32) Wade Davis (35) Chris Devenski (30) Oliver Drake (34) Ken Giles (30) Shane Greene (32) Javy Guerra (35) Matt Harvey (32) Liam Hendriks (32) Yoshihisa Hirano (37) Greg Holland (35) Jared Hughes (35) Tommy Hunter (34) Jeremy Jeffress (33) Nate Jones (35) Keone Kela (28) Ian Kennedy (36) Brandon Kintzler (36) — $4MM club option with a $250K buyout Brady Lail (27) Matt Magill (31) Trevor May (31) Collin McHugh (34) Mark Melancon (36) Juan Nicasio (34) Darren O’Day (38) – $3.5MM club option with a $500K buyout Brad Peacock (33) Yusmeiro Petit (36) David Phelps (34) — $4.5MM club option with a $250K buyout Erasmo Ramirez (31) AJ Ramos (34) David Robertson (36) — $12MM club option with a $2MM buyout Sergio Romo (38) Hector Rondon (33) Trevor Rosenthal (31) Joakim Soria (37) Pedro Strop (36) Tyler Thornburg (32) Josh Tomlin (36) Blake Treinen (33) Nick Vincent (34) Edinson Volquez (37) Brandon Workman (32) Kirby Yates (34) LH Relievers Spoiler Jose Alvarez (32) Luis Avilan (31) Andrew Chafin (31) Ross Detwiler (35) Sean Doolittle (34) Brad Hand (31) — $10MM club option with a $1MM buyout Derek Holland (34) Mike Kickham (32) Aaron Loup (33) T.J. McFarland (32) Jake McGee (34) Oliver Perez (39) Nick Ramirez (31) Tony Watson (36) Justin Wilson (33) Catchers Spoiler Alex Avila (34) Drew Butera (37) Welington Castillo (34) Jason Castro (34) Robinson Chirinos (36) Tyler Flowers (35) Bryan Holaday (33) Erik Kratz (41) Sandy Leon (32) Jeff Mathis (38) James McCann (31) Yadier Molina (38) Roberto Perez (32) — $5.5MM club option with a $450K buyout Josh Phegley (33) Wilson Ramos (33) J.T. Realmuto (30) Rene Rivera (37) Austin Romine (32) Kurt Suzuki (37) Stephen Vogt (36) — $3MM club option with a $500K buyout Matt Wieters (35) Mike Zunino (30) — $4.5MM club option for 2021 CF Spoiler Jackie Bradley Jr. (31) Rusney Castillo (33) Jarrod Dyson (36) Brett Gardner (37) — $10MM club option with a $2.5MM buyout Billy Hamilton (30) Jon Jay (36) Jake Marisnick (30) Kevin Pillar (32) Mallex Smith (28) George Springer (31) Michael A. Taylor (30)
I think it is going to be a race to sign a contract for free agents. The money that they are used to is not available. I expect a lot of whining by players and agents come January.
I saw this earlier, and was coming here to mention this. Brad Hand for $10M seems super reasonable, even in this depressed market. Hand has been a consistent, steady closer. I like the young arms that did well this past shortened season, but I would also caution against thinking we found 7-8 long-term solutions. This bullpen can absolutely use talented arms. Nabbing Hand early, who we could name our closer immediately, thus allowing us to slide Pressly into the setup role again, would be a fantastic start to the offseason.
He’s talking about the playoffs. Pressly is fine as a high leverage bullpen guy. Give him a full year + after the knee issues, along with a full ST, and he’ll likely get closer to where he was at the start of 2019 vs. where he was for much of 2020 (but did round into form in the playoffs). The issue they had last year was that he was their ONLY proven high leverage bullpen guy. Paredes did great in the playoffs, and likely has the inside track for a 7th inning or later spot next year, but they badly need depth. Luckily Click understands that better than anybody. The Rays essentially had 3 different guys who could possibly close any given night. Of course a manager can end up falling in love with that sort of luxury, and takes out his starter who is cruising with 2 hits allowed as a result...
Yep! I think there will be lots of short term deals. Astros in my opinion will go after Correa hard this summer.
Yeah, I like Paredes' stuff and he has the potential to be a solid late inning reliever but overall he was pretty up and down through the season and not someone I would want to have as my second best reliever in the pen heading into next season (assuming Javier is in the rotation). Even in the playoffs his xwOBA was over .310, for instance.
A few too many walks and a few too many fastballs over the heart of the plate gave him problems at times. Though, he's just a touch of slider command from being as good always as he looks at times.
Hinch favored to go to Detroit. Wouldn't be surprised to see JV go back to Detroit to finish his career and reunite with Hinch...
