Winter Meetings Thread

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Its GM malpractice if Elias isn't, even if due to financial constraints he has to negotiate for Tampa to send $$$ and gain access to a better prospect.

Do you see a difference between Burnes ~1/16 and this?     I would agree Cease ~2/25 is different financially, though a bit worse on quality.

If we are lucky Adley Rutschman will earn 1/25 as an Arb3 in 2027; now is when we have a bunch of the guys on the baseball equivalent of their Lamar rookie deals, and Angelos' practices are worse than a league-wide salary cap.     

There is no way they are taking on a $25M salary, especially for a pitcher who has been oft injured.

Zippy chance. 
 

Im not saying they shouldn’t but they aren’t going to.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

I’m not convinced that Elias is good at trading. We really haven’t seen him trade for anyone worthwhile yet. Fuji was a salary dump, Flaherty was a loser as we basically got nothing worth talking about out of him. 

He’s a cautious trader.  He didn’t give up any top prospects for Flaherty.  Hernaiz was not top ten for Irvin.   Cease will be a good test for him.  Most think it’s going to take Cowser/Kjerstad + Ortiz/Norby.   If he can get him for less, bravo.   Now, if he has to overpay to get him does that make him a good trader or is he a good trader by walking away.   Some of his recent trades, like Flaherty, haven’t worked out but I don’t think anyone, for the most part, thinks he overpaid at the time of the deal.

[HakunaSakata]

48 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You do also have to pay him ~33M.

That number is bit irrelevant to a team like the Yankees though. 

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, HakunaSakata said:

That number is bit irrelevant to a team like the Yankees though. 

Is it?

They had their first round draft pick moved back 10 slots this year.  That seems bad.  They are also handing money over to their competitors, some of which might even spend it on their teams instead of pocketing it while crying poor.

[sportsfan8703]

4 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

He’s a cautious trader.  He didn’t give up any top prospects for Flaherty.  Hernaiz was not top ten for Irvin.   Cease will be a good test for him.  Most think it’s going to take Cowser/Kjerstad + Ortiz/Norby.   If he can get him for less, bravo.   Now, if he has to overpay to get him does that make him a good trader or is he a good trader by walking away.   Some of his recent trades, like Flaherty, haven’t worked out but I don’t think anyone, for the most part, thinks he overpaid at the time of the deal.

Maybe he learned. The cautious trader really cost us in the playoffs. Instead of turning to a hired gun reliever, we turned to Webb in game 1. Kremer had to start Game 3.

The offseason allows you to be a bit more cautious, but it doesn’t look like a Luzardo, or Cease trade, would crush us. We might have to give up Cowser or Kjerstad, but those wouldn’t mortgage our future entirely. 

[RZNJ]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Maybe he learned. The cautious trader really cost us in the playoffs. Instead of turning to a hired gun reliever, we turned to Webb in game 1. Kremer had to start Game 3.

The offseason allows you to be a bit more cautious, but it doesn’t look like a Luzardo, or Cease trade, would crush us. We might have to give up Cowser or Kjerstad, but those wouldn’t mortgage our future entirely. 

I would agree that we should be able to give up either and be okay but I don’t know how much Elias believes in each player.    

[sportsfan8703]

8 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Also, seeing the Yankees trade away whatever farm system they have in order for Cashman to keep his job and idiot Yankee fans happy is *chefs kiss* 

Looking at this trade… the Yankees gave up 3/5ths of a MLB rotation of guys that are MLB ready and only 24/25. That’s a hefty price. Plus the former 1st rd pick.

A top 5 MLB player coming to the division. 

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Looking at this trade… the Yankees gave up 3/5ths of a MLB rotation of guys that are MLB ready and only 24/25. That’s a hefty price. Plus the former 1st rd pick.

A top 5 MLB player coming to the division. 

I know, it's great.

I'm sure Soto will continue to be a great hitter and put up elite OBP stats.  That's fine.  But like I said earlier, he's getting fat, his defense is already bad and he's slow.  He's going to be a DH by the time he's 30, probably sooner.  And if the Yankees want to pay out the ass for that, that's fine.

 

[Rbiggs2525]

The difference between the orioles and 99% of the other teams is the Orioles do not HAVE to do anything. These teams looking to rebuild like the White Sox are calling the Orioles because they have great prospects. Of course something inside me says, sign Ohtani, trade for Burnes and Luzardo. We would still have a payroll under 130 million. 

[Brooks The Great]

9 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I know, it's great.

I'm sure Soto will continue to be a great hitter and put up elite OBP stats.  That's fine.  But like I said earlier, he's getting fat, his defense is already bad and he's slow.  He's going to be a DH by the time he's 30, probably sooner.  And if the Yankees want to pay out the ass for that, that's fine.

 

The other thing is that Judge is a pretty injury-prone player. Whenever Judge goes down, that lineup is pedestrian, and it becomes easier to just pitch around Soto. Soto's whole approach is to draw walks anyway, but teams will be punished far less for putting Soto on base whenever Judge is on the DL. 

I also agree that Soto's body type isn't going to hold up well. Even if Soto stays healthy over the next several years (assuming the Yankees sign him long-term, which isn't a given), he's only going to get slower, and the Yankees are going to have a poor OF defense whenever he plays in the field.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Brooks The Great

[Just Regular]

20 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I know, it's great.

I'm sure Soto will continue to be a great hitter and put up elite OBP stats.  That's fine.  But like I said earlier, he's getting fat, his defense is already bad and he's slow.  He's going to be a DH by the time he's 30, probably sooner.  And if the Yankees want to pay out the ass for that, that's fine.

 

So he's Babe Ruth

Its a fun deal because the '24 Yankees might have been too easy to beat otherwise.     Judge and Cole are old.

I do big hope NYY is unable to retain him for the rest of his prime, and that a year from now the narrative is the mid-20's Yankees simply aren't what Soto would consider a good fit as the Club he'll spend the plurality of his career with.

I do think the Yankees did a nice job selling high on Michael King.

[jamalshw]

35 minutes ago, Brooks The Great said:

The other thing is that Judge is a pretty injury-prone player. Whenever Judge goes down, that lineup is pedestrian, and it becomes easier to just pitch around Soto. Soto's whole approach is to draw walks anyway, but teams will be punished far less for putting Soto on base whenever Judge is on the DL. 

I also agree that Soto's body type isn't going to hold up well. Even if Soto stays healthy over the next several years (assuming the Yankees sign him long-term, which isn't a given), he's only going to get slower, and the Yankees are going to have a poor OF defense whenever he plays in the field.

Not only do you have Soto as a poor defender, but it pushes Judge to CF taking a good defensive corner outfielder and miscasting him, downgrading two positions. It'll be very interesting to see how often Grisham ends up playing. A lot of that depends on injuries (of course) and Stanton. If Stanton can't bounce back, the offense is still top heavy for the Yankees. And Boone may opt to DH Soto and put Grisham in CF to improve the defense given he had an identical OPS+ to Stanton last year. 

And, to get Soto (and Verdugo) the Yankees traded a lot of pitching depth....so depending on what else they do this offseason, they may take a not-inconsequential hit on the run prevention side. 

[Roll Tide]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Kyle Bradish wants to know how closely you follow the team.

The team really wasn’t built with trades. 

[Pickles]

Just now, Roll Tide said:

The team really wasn’t built with trades. 

No, no team is solely built on trades.

Indisputably though, they got their number 1 starter through a trade and all they gave up was the broken down corpse of Dylan Bundy.

[oriolediehard]

On 12/6/2023 at 8:14 AM, wildcard said:

I see Angelos as not spending on both.   Each one made 10M last year.

So far it is only a rumor! I will believe it when JA will sign anyone.