The Case for P. Alvarez

[theobird]

All I can say about Pedro Alvarez is this: IMO, he is the highest upside guy on the market. I think in OPACY and the AL east he is a monster power hitter that could be signed for a very reasonable deal (3/20-21). And there is no compensation tied to him. If I were the Orioles, I would be thinking hard about putting Trumbo in RF and signing Alvarez to DH. Trumbo does have a RF arm, not great but better than Fowler or Kim.

[weams]

All I can say about Pedro Alvarez is this: IMO, he is the highest upside guy on the market. I think in OPACY and the AL east he is a monster power hitter that could be signed for a very reasonable deal (3/20-21). And there is no compensation tied to him. If I were the Orioles, I would be thinking hard about putting Trumbo in RF and signing Alvarez to DH. Trumbo does have a RF arm, not great but better than Fowler or Kim.

I would enjoy watching this.

[theobird]

I would enjoy watching this.

I knew you would Weams, you certainly do dig the long ball.

[weams]

I knew you would Weams, you certainly do dig the long ball.

I do. I do dig the long ball. That's where we play. That's who we are. That's where we come from.

[theobird]

I do. I do dig the long ball. That's where we play. That's who we are. That's where we come from.

Lol, and Earl also dug the long ball. Pitching, defense and the 3 run HR. We have the defense, adding Alvarez puts us over the top on the long ball. Can we get the pitching? These guys are not Palmer, McNally, Cuellar and company are they?

[JayThomas]

All I can say about Pedro Alvarez is this: IMO, he is the highest upside guy on the market. I think in OPACY and the AL east he is a monster power hitter that could be signed for a very reasonable deal (3/20-21). And there is no compensation tied to him. If I were the Orioles, I would be thinking hard about putting Trumbo in RF and signing Alvarez to DH. Trumbo does have a RF arm, not great but better than Fowler or Kim.

I've been down with this idea for a while. I would be very happy with that lineup, even accepting Trumbo in right.

[CaptainRedbeard]

All I can say about Pedro Alvarez is this: IMO, he is the highest upside guy on the market. I think in OPACY and the AL east he is a monster power hitter that could be signed for a very reasonable deal (3/20-21). And there is no compensation tied to him. If I were the Orioles, I would be thinking hard about putting Trumbo in RF and signing Alvarez to DH. Trumbo does have a RF arm, not great but better than Fowler or Kim.

3/21!? Alvarez is going to be lucky if he can do better than 1/5 right now. The Pirates non-tendered him at a projected $8.1MM salary. I do think he's by far the highest upside guy on the market, but part of his appeal is that he has no suitors so he could be had for a below-market deal.

[Go_Os]

Even if Heyman is completely making it up, it's good he's reporting interest in Alvarez because it helps our case with Fowler.

I'm starting to think that we are the only team Boras could even come to for Alvarez. Let's ignore the NL teams for now, since he's such a bad 1B he'd likely only be a pinch hitter for them. To get playing time, he'd need to go to an AL team with a DH with position flexibility to play the OF/1B. Let's look at that team by team:

BOS: Papi. No fit.

NYY: A-Rod. Teixeira at 1B. No fit.

TB: Morrison/Pearce/Dickerson. Very crowded. No real fit, but perhaps some weaker competition.

TOR: Encarnacion. Unless they're down on Smoak and are ok with Encarnacion/Alvarez playing 1B, looks like another no fit.

DET: Martinez. No fit.

KC: Morales. No fit.

CLE: Santana. Napoli signed to be everyday 1B. Just signed Uribe. Looks like another no fit.

MIN: Park. Could play 1B, but Mauer entrenched there. No fit.

CHW: Laroche/Abreu. No fit.

SEA: Cruz. Could play the OF in a pinch, but he's another year older and they want to keep him healthy. Similar to the BAL situation, but likely worse.

LAA: Pujols/Cron. Big hole in LF - maybe Cron could do a Trumbo impression out there? He has no ML experience in the OF. Still a tough fit.

OAK: Butler. Haha.

TEX: Moreland/Fielder. Similar to LAA with a potentially big hole in LF if Hamilton is hurt, but no indication that Moreland could cut it out there. Unlikely fit.

HOU: Gattis. He's played some bad OF but he's had some injury issues and they want him at DH. Singleton is far from a sure thing at 1B. But, they already dumped Carter early in the offseason. Unlikely fit.

To me, it looks like the Orioles have easily the most position flexibility between their DH/1B pairs. Davis and Trumbo may be bad OFers, but at least they've spent some time out there. As far as I can tell, Boras/Alvarez may be best off coming to us to find playing time, even if he's not guaranteed it. They're more likely to play the "waiting for an injury game" but that's a risky proposition IMO.

The Yankees lost Greg Bird for the year. They could use Alvarez.

[sportsfan8703]

I would consider Alvarez even after we get Fowler. There is room on the 25 man. Just no Rickard. It looks like DD is trying to correct the problems of last year. Which were the lack of SP depth and the corner bat we were searching for all year. It would be an insurance plan if a corner guy went down. Reimold, Fowler and Trumbo have all had some injury problems before. I'd be surprised if it happened but then again I never expected us to bring back O'day, CD and sign Gallardo and Fowler(probably).

Our AAA depth is looking pretty solid right now.

SP's-Despaigner, Worley, Wright, Wilson, Jones, Mac

RP's- Drake, Mac, all the above arms

OF-Alvarez, Urrutia, Hoes, Avery, Navarro, Terdaslavich

IF- Janish and Tolleson

1B- Walker, Mancini, Terdaslavich

C: Pena

[CaptainRedbeard]

The Yankees lost Greg Bird for the year. They could use Alvarez.

Greg Bird wasn't in line to get much playing time with them anyway, unless he was playing OF (which Alvarez can't do). Teixeira can only play 1B. A-Rod can't play anywhere. Alvarez could back up both of them but there'd be no playing time for him while both of the veterans are healthy. He has a better chance to get playing time with the Orioles.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Greg Bird wasn't in line to get much playing time with them anyway, unless he was playing OF (which Alvarez can't do). Teixeira can only play 1B. A-Rod can't play anywhere. Alvarez could back up both of them but there'd be no playing time for him while both of the veterans are healthy. He has a better chance to get playing time with the Orioles.

Yankees also just signed Chris Parmelee to a MiLB deal (about 20 min ago). He'd be a better fit than Alvarez to fill the Greg Bird role because he can actually play some OF.

[Go_Os]

Yankees also just signed Chris Parmelee to a MiLB deal (about 20 min ago). He'd be a better fit than Alvarez to fill the Greg Bird role because he can actually play some OF.

Bird was strictly a first baseman, so not sure of your point. Plus, Alvarez is much better than Parmalee, who will likely be in AAA.

[El Gordo]

The Yankees lost Greg Bird for the year. They could use Alvarez.

Where? He can't play anything but DH.

[El Gordo]

Bird was strictly a first baseman, so not sure of your point. Plus, Alvarez is much better than Parmalee, who will likely be in AAA.

Alvarez is a butcher at 1B and they have ARoid and Beltran at DH.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Bird was strictly a first baseman, so not sure of your point. Plus, Alvarez is much better than Parmalee, who will likely be in AAA.

My mistake. I thought there was some talk of him getting time in the OF but that was just speculation. But it looks like the Yankees' plan was to have Bird in AAA, so they may not want to have Alvarez on the major league roster.

"The expectation was that [bird] would be at Triple-A in the event we had a problem," Cashman said. "We've lost an important piece that benefited us greatly last year when Tex went down...Obviously we're down a big insurance piece for 2016."

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/163380482/yankees-greg-bird-to-miss-season-with-injury

As far as I can tell, their bench is Dustin Ackley, Aaron Hicks, Gary Sanchez, and likely MI to backup Gregorious at SS (probably Kozma). Perhaps if they're comfortable with Ackley backing up Castro at 2B and Castro backing up SS, they could squeeze Alvarez into that last spot, but they're likely better off having a true utility infielder on the bench.

I'm aware Alvarez is better than Parmelee, but my point was more that Parmelee isn't confined to just DH, and that may be better suited for their bench given that neither Teixeira or A-Rod can play the OF. It doesn't appear like that's the case though, Bird was never going to be on the bench and play some OF, so Parmelee is just serving as the minor league depth to replace Bird.