![]() Pius Dominguez wonders about Jacob Nottingham, who was at Triple-A Norfolk this year. Question: What do you think about bringing back Austin Wynns as Rutschman’s backup? From: Scott Smolen via emailĪnswer: There’s a lot of interest in Rutschman’s backup. Rodriguez has yet to throw a big-league pitch, so let’s wait a while for that one. Henderson is represented by Scott Boras, who is not a fan of players signing long-term contracts early in their careers. It certainly makes sense to try to extend Rutschman early, but the Orioles haven’t done that with anyone. I think the Orioles would like to extend Rutschman, but at last week’s season-ending press conference, Mike Elias said that “It takes two to tango,” and that he wouldn’t telegraph his moves. It’s hard enough to predict the offseason without trying to look ahead five or six years. Mike Davis also wonders about locking the younger players up. Question: Do you see the Orioles locking up the key young guys, Rutschman, Henderson, Grayson, like the Braves have done or will we see a repeat of the 2018 fire sale in five or six years? From: Geoff, this was another popular question. I think if he was successful more often, then he’d bunt more. Mateo attempted to bunt for a hit seven times and was successful just once. Obviously, his defense was good, and was the main reason his WAR (Wins Above Replacement) was 3.3, which trailed only Adley Rutschman, Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías. Mateo struck out more than five times more often than he walked, and that’s not good. But I could see Cohen driving up the price on impact starting pitching, which is something the Cubs need as badly as anyone out there.It’s certainly possible that he could go to a hitting coach. ![]() The other good news? There’s next to no chance the Mets are going after one of the big free agent shortstops with Francisco Lindor in place, so the Cubs shouldn’t see any competition from them on that front (and the same arguably goes for the Yankees, for what it’s worth). They probably won’t go after all of them, but still … that should eat up a big chunk of change, while basically just running it back in 2023. Most notably: Edwin Diaz, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker, and Brandon Nimmo. The good news, I suppose, is that they have a TON of outgoing free agents they’ll likely want to re-sign in addition to deGrom. It’s more complicated than that (what happens with Dom Smith’s $4M? Will any of their four players accept the $19.65M qualifying offer? Etc.), but that’s a good place to start mentally.Īnd here’s the thing, even if you think Cohen will do whatever it takes to re-sign Jacob deGrom (~$44M per year), you’re still back up to only $205 million. Arbitration Additions: Take that number and add arbitration estimates for Pete Alsono ($15.9M), Jeff McNeil ($6.2M), Luis Guillorme ($1.5M), Drew Smith ($1.2M), Tomas Nido ($1.6M), and Joey Lucchesi ($1.15M) and your back up to roughly $161M to start.Opt-out Subtractions: If you subtract expected opt-outs/options for Jacob deGrom ($30.5M), Chris Bassitt ($19M), and Taijuan Walker ($6M), that drops the number down to $149.5M.The Mets have roughly $205M committed to their 2023 payroll, but that has some very big caveats.SNY took a look at their 2023 payroll as of today to get a sense of what could be coming. So far, the expectation out of New York is that the Mets will spend BEYOND the highest level of the luxury tax this offseason ($290M and aptly nicknamed the “Steve Cohen Tax”), which could create some annoying competition for the Cubs, who figure to be as active as any team in MLB. That is to say, owner Steve Cohen has the deepest pockets in MLB, and I think he’s going to flex them (again) after a second-consecutive disappointing season (he hasn’t even won the division yet!). Let’s talk about some of the rumors bubbling up across the league as the 2023 postseason rumbles on … Mets Offseason Spendingįor as happy as I was to see the Mets flame out in the first round of the postseason (both because of their weak stomachs at the trade deadline and because I just don’t like the Mets), I remain worried about what comes next. The last article I wrote at Bleacher Nation was 15 days ago, a Cubs Pre-Gamin’ post against the Reds, one day before the birth of my first son, Leo! That’s the longest I’ve gone without publishing a post on this site since I started back in 2015.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |