MLBTR top 50 free agents, with ties to the Orioles

[Explosivo]

Load up on lefties.

[wildcard]

9 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Benintendi plays good defense in LF and gets on base.  We don't have a corner OF that does both of those things.   Cowser, hopefully will, but there's nothing wrong with having two like that.   J.D. Martinez clogs up the DH spot.  He HAS to hit.  His last few years show signs of decline while Benintendi is 28/29 coming off a good year.   I'd take Benintendi, and move Hays to RF.  I can DH Santander or trade him.

I don't see Elias spending 50M on a corner OFer that hit 5 homers last year.  Not with Cowser in the majors sometime in 2023.  Cowser should be able to give the OBP that Benintendi has for  700Kish per year for 3 years.

[RZNJ]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

I don't see Elias spending 50M on a corner OFer that hit 5 homers last year.  Not with Cowser in the majors sometime in 2023.  Cowser should be able to give the OBP that Benintendi has for  700Kish per year for 3 years.

As I said, it doesn’t hurt to have both.  Elias mentioned 2 bats.  I really have no idea where he’s headed with that.  Could it be a DH like Abreu/Martinez/Mancini?   A top SS like Correa/Turner?     An OF like Nimmo/Benintendi?    Lesser, complimentary players?   I have no clue.  I don’t think anyone else has a clue either.

Edited November 12, 2022 by RZNJ

[Sports Guy]

OAA has Benintendi as an average LFer, which has been the case for a while now. He has little to no power.

The BA/OBp could be good though.  I wouldn’t want to get into a long term Commitment with him though. He’s generally a 1.5-2.5 WAR guy.  
 

Id aim higher but he could be a fall back option.

 

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

OAA has Benintendi as an average LFer, which has been the case for a while now. He has little to no power.

The BA/OBp could be good though.  I wouldn’t want to get into a long term Commitment with him though. He’s generally a 1.5-2.5 WAR guy.  
 

Id aim higher but he could be a fall back option.

 

He’s kind of a  less durable Nick Markakis.  

[Sports Guy]

45 minutes ago, Frobby said:

He’s kind of a  less durable Nick Markakis.  

Yep…not as good as Nick was in his early years but similar to the player Nick was for the back half of his career.

That player has value.  

[waroriole]

14 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Benintendi plays good defense in LF and gets on base.  We don't have a corner OF that does both of those things.   Cowser, hopefully will, but there's nothing wrong with having two like that.   J.D. Martinez clogs up the DH spot.  He HAS to hit.  His last few years show signs of decline while Benintendi is 28/29 coming off a good year.   I'd take Benintendi, and move Hays to RF.  I can DH Santander or trade him.

He got on base last year, thanks to a high BABIP. He’s average defensively in LF and hit with no power last year. Giving him 4/56, when we have Cowser and Stowers ready to contribute is insane. 

[RZNJ]

14 minutes ago, waroriole said:

He got on base last year, thanks to a high BABIP. He’s average defensively in LF and hit with no power last year. Giving him 4/56, when we have Cowser and Stowers ready to contribute is insane. 

Fair point on Stowers and Cowser but we really don’t know what we’ve got there, yet.   I originally mentioned Nimmo and Tide mentioned Benintendi. Either way, you can have an outfield with a FA in LF, Cowser eventually in RF, and Stowers DH and 4th OF, although, of course, they all bat LH, along with Cedric.

At this point I’m playing devils advocate for Benintendi.  Only 5 homers but also a career low strikeout rate of 14.8%.  You mention his Babip of .353 but his career babip is .324 and .353 isn’t even his career high.  His defensive stats in LF are average but better than Hays.

Do I love Benintendi?  No.   Could I see him as one of the additions?  Yes.  If it were up to me it would be:

CF Mullins

3B Henderson

C Rutschman

DH Santander 

1B Mountcastle

RF Stowers

LF Hays

2B Westburg

SS Ortiz 

Trade Mateo and keep Urías as a super utility guy who plays 5 games a week all over.

See what happens in the OF, if and when Cowser is ready.  
 

Use FA dollars towards pitching.  Try for Verlander or Rodon.   A guy like Jameson Taillon to be the Lyles, but better, type.   Push Tyler Wells to the bullpen, and roll.

However, Elias mentioned TWO bats.  I’m trying to figure out where he’s looking to plug them in.  I see the OF as more logical than the IF with our plethora of ML and MIL options in the IF.   If 4/56 is insane for Benintendi when you’ve got Cowser and Stowers then what do you think of 10/300 for Correa when you have Henderson, Ortiz, and Holliday?

[btdart20]

6 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Fair point on Stowers and Cowser but we really don’t know what we’ve got there, yet.   I originally mentioned Nimmo and Tide mentioned Benintendi. Either way, you can have an outfield with a FA in LF, Cowser eventually in RF, and Stowers DH and 4th OF, although, of course, they all bat LH, along with Cedric.

At this point I’m playing devils advocate for Benintendi.  Only 5 homers but also a career low strikeout rate of 14.8%.  You mention his Babip of .353 but his career babip is .324 and .353 isn’t even his career high.  His defensive stats in LF are average but better than Hays.

Do I love Benintendi?  No.   Could I see him as one of the additions?  Yes.  If it were up to me it would be:

CF Mullins

3B Henderson

C Rutschman

DH Santander 

1B Mountcastle

RF Stowers

LF Hays

2B Westburg

SS Ortiz 

Trade Mateo and keep Urías as a super utility guy who plays 5 games a week all over.

See what happens in the OF, if and when Cowser is ready.  
 

Use FA dollars towards pitching.  Try for Verlander or Rodon.   A guy like Jameson Taillon to be the Lyles, but better, type.   Push Tyler Wells to the bullpen, and roll.

However, Elias mentioned TWO bats.  I’m trying to figure out where he’s looking to plug them in.  I see the OF as more logical than the IF with our plethora of ML and MIL options in the IF.   If 4/56 is insane for Benintendi when you’ve got Cowser and Stowers then what do you think of 10/300 for Correa when you have Henderson, Ortiz, and Holliday?

I like that lineup, especially with Cowser pushing Hays!  
Benintendi and Nimmo (and I’ll add Yoshida to the conversation) make sense from an OBP perspective (big hole in the current offensive construct). Plus comparatively I think we have bigger short-term OF questions than IF (other than 1B) and we know at least MIA has interest in our OFers (the degree is tbd).  

Trade a OF+ for SP, sign an OF, sign a 1B, sign a SP could be what he’s thinking.  But I tend to think that’s pretty ambitious.

Would $40-50m more in the budget get these guys?

Cabrera/Lopez (minus Santander/Mateo)

Benintendi/Nimmo/Yoshida

Abreu/Bell (Belt for a lower price point?)

Senga/Taillon

 

 

[waroriole]

36 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Fair point on Stowers and Cowser but we really don’t know what we’ve got there, yet.   I originally mentioned Nimmo and Tide mentioned Benintendi. Either way, you can have an outfield with a FA in LF, Cowser eventually in RF, and Stowers DH and 4th OF, although, of course, they all bat LH, along with Cedric.

At this point I’m playing devils advocate for Benintendi.  Only 5 homers but also a career low strikeout rate of 14.8%.  You mention his Babip of .353 but his career babip is .324 and .353 isn’t even his career high.  His defensive stats in LF are average but better than Hays.

Do I love Benintendi?  No.   Could I see him as one of the additions?  Yes.  If it were up to me it would be:

CF Mullins

3B Henderson

C Rutschman

DH Santander 

1B Mountcastle

RF Stowers

LF Hays

2B Westburg

SS Ortiz 

Trade Mateo and keep Urías as a super utility guy who plays 5 games a week all over.

See what happens in the OF, if and when Cowser is ready.  
 

Use FA dollars towards pitching.  Try for Verlander or Rodon.   A guy like Jameson Taillon to be the Lyles, but better, type.   Push Tyler Wells to the bullpen, and roll.

However, Elias mentioned TWO bats.  I’m trying to figure out where he’s looking to plug them in.  I see the OF as more logical than the IF with our plethora of ML and MIL options in the IF.   If 4/56 is insane for Benintendi when you’ve got Cowser and Stowers then what do you think of 10/300 for Correa when you have Henderson, Ortiz, and Holliday?

Yeah I agree with almost all of this. I do think it’s helpful to have a Brantley/JD type hitter on the team. If we start seeing bad Mountcastle, he needs to be benched. Stowers, Westburg, Adley and Santander should all be working at 1B this off-season. No excuse to have a .728 OPS at 1B next year. 

[waroriole]

15 hours ago, Roll Tide said:

Offensively we do not 

For maybe the first 6 months of his 4 year contract, he should be a better hitter than what  we currently have. What about the other 3.5 years?

[Just Regular]

50 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

However, Elias mentioned TWO bats.

I hear this some as a signal to other GM's that 5/9th of the 2022 yearend lineup aren't guys that they should be shy about asking about.

Trey Mancini might make less than Santander next year.

[waroriole]

12 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:

30 year old Sean Manaea might be exactly what we need. Big lefty who still throws mid-90's, pitched a no-hitter against the Red Sox some years back. His ERA ballooned the last couple seasons so he might come cheap, and I'm wondering if the Orioles' coaches can figure out what's wrong and get him back to what he was prior to that. 

I’m not sure what his pitching a no hitter against the Red Sox a few years ago has to do with signing him now. His FB only averaged 91 last year. And he got hit hard. Maybe a 1/5 type deal to see if he can bounce back. 

[Camden Yards]

Here are CBS possible trade candidates. Interesting Bieber and Burnes made the list with the Orioles as a possibility for both. 
 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-trade-candidates-rafael-devers-corbin-burnes-among-20-players-who-could-move-shohei-ohtani-staying-put/amp/

[DrinkinWithFermi]

Benintendi is just a worse, older, more expensive version of what we hope Cowser will be for us, and Cowser should arrive sometime next year, so I don't really see much sense in going after him.