2019-2020 MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

[flyers19rw]

I should have written UCLA not USC. The Bruins figured Gowdy to be their next top line pitcher following Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. He and his family told the scouts that he had a number to be matched or that he was going to go to school. The Phillies matched that number and we know the rest of the story. Had Gowdy not had such a high pre-draft price tag, thought to be $3.5M, he probably would have been a first rounder. That scared off a lot of the evaluators. The Moniak-Gowdy signing at the time looked like a real coup, until it didn't.

[Philsmania]

Moniak also had a scholarship in hand from UCLA.

[zambonir]

The Cubs are a decimated organization after laying off 100-plus employees

[mdougherty12]

St. Louis declines Kolten Wong’s 2021 option:

Wong's '21 option declined by Cardinals

[LoneStarPhan]

With many clubs making major layoffs, I think we see many players becoming free agents because options are not being exercised.

It seems to me that the free agent market will be a buyers market. I see many teams looking for the "value" free agents who project to provide value without requiring huge long term commitments. I expect to see a few big signings (see Betts contract) but I also expect to see a fairly large pool of free agents not signing quickly and not getting offers that match their expectations.

We will see.

[xogfog]

The White Sox hire Tony La Russa to be their manager.

Hall of Famer La Russa, 76, to manage White Sox

[zambonir]

I'm guessing that won't go well. But I would also say, not only the White Sox!

In a classic Jerry Reinsdorf move, the White Sox bring back Tony La Russa

Only the White Sox could build a young, edgy, personable team after years of trotting out replacement-level mediocrity and then muck up the goodwill they’ve engendered like this.

Only the White Sox would proactively fire their manager after their first playoff season in 12 years and replace him with the manager they mistakenly fired in 1986.

Only the White Sox would declare they’re looking for a skipper with recent World Series experience, for a voice from outside the organization, and decide on Tony La Russa, who retired from managing after a Hall of Fame career in 2011.

I should say only Jerry Reinsdorf would do these things. This is a Jerry production. Even as the Sox move into a new era, they’re still the same dysfunctional White Sox and it starts at the top.

[mdougherty12]

Article from 538 on the Dodgers organization:

The Dodgers’ Championship Machine Took A Decade — And A Lot Of Money — To Build

[zambonir]

Charlie Morton always seems one year away from retirement but the Rays did not pick up his $15 million option.

12 notable new MLB free agents who had their options declined

[zambonir]

Word is Hand cleared waivers. Roberto Osuna also likely to become a free agent though he is more similar to Morgan, health questions (and Phillies surely can't touch him if they won't give Herrera a chance).

I feel like this all bodes well for the Phillies keeping Didi, but ill for them even offering the QO. Teams, especially when they are analytics-minded and thrifty, put a $ value on draft picks; the value of the comp pick is probably lower than the extra $5-10 million they'd be spending on a SS if Didi takes the QO.

Not sure JT will break any records either, though he also won't suffer.

[bkeich]

My guess is that giving DiDi a QO will work. He will almost certainly decline because this is his big shot for a payday. He needs to find that 3-4 year deal and by taking the QO he will be putting himself behind a plethora of other SS next year. I would hope his agent sees that.

Honestly, the Phils would be better off paying him $19M for one season than getting stuck with him for 3-4 years as he should begin declining immediately.

The other way to look at it is we have so little talent in the organization at the moment any signing of a probably above average ML player is a plus.

I really hope they take the chance on the QO. We desperately need the pick. Or the player. What we can’t have is getting nothing, the team already has plenty of that.

[zambonir]

If Brad Hand isn't even worth $10 million to a single team in MLB, I am not convinced there is going to be a three-year deal out there for Didi, or even a one-year raise over his 2020 salary. In the current climate, with salaries still possibly prorated this season and the uncertainly of a labor stoppage/lockout in 2021 added in, the fact that it might be even harder for Didi to get a deal after 2021 is all the more reason for him to just take the QO.

And the Phillies don't want him to do that, unless they're ready to concede they aren't keeping JT. This isn't like 2017 when they had a ton of money and CBT tax room, right now they have neither.

They should try to sign him him a two-year deal, with little or no raise, before the QO deadline even comes. But I assume players are't going to be ready to wave that white flag too early in the off-season. Some will come to regret that.

[LoneStarPhan]

Any labor problems in baseball in the next year or two would be insane for both sides.

[zambonir]

Don't see how it can be avoided. The talk now is that the owners would like to just extend the CBA one more year because it will be too hard to map out the future without at least one normal season. But there's little reason for the players to want that.

I still think we could have a brief lockout this season, as they try to negotiate COVID adjustments. The MLBPA's grievance from last season will also be outstanding through all of this.

[Lucky_Beagle]

The more I read and hear about players being waived, options not picked up etc. I am going to guess the Phillies decide to not make an QO to Didi. In a normal year maybe they would take the chance, but I don't see them taking the chance this year. I also think somewhere teams have to be getting flack for offering QO to players who don't fully deserve it. Each one offered and accept helps to run up the cost for future years. Of course I could be completely wrong as well!

[zambonir]

Gammons: October belonged to the shortstops

Reading this, I also think we might overrate Didi. He was one of the better players on the team this year but that's because so many other theoretically skilled players (Cutch, Segura, Kingery, both CFs) weren't that good. Obviously in a normal year the Phillies would gladly use their $ and desperation to keep him on a one-year deal but the reality is there might be equal value out there for a lot less money, and also greater value if they look to the next free agent class.

It is probably moot since he's not getting a longer, richer deal this season no matter what. But if you do hand out a longer, richer deal, you really want someone who's pretty clearly one of the five or six best shortstops in the game, and I don't think he is. He was 12th in WAR and 10th in wOBA and wRC+ - that's still a good player, but really the 10-20th ranked guys are largely interchangeable, and of course he'll be aging.

[zambonir]

Source: the Mets intend to extend Marcus Stroman a qualifying offer by tomorrow's deadline. It is worth $18.9 million.

No surprise there. The widespread industry expectation is that Stroman will decline and enter free agency, thereby garnering the Mets draft pick compensation.

— Anthony DiComo ( @AnthonyDiComo ) October 31, 2020

Probably takes him off the table for Phillies (or one would hope).

[fish]

This pension dispute with Chris Holt of the orioles is pretty interesting. If you can only designate the mlb benefits package to 4 of your coaches, it would seem to dictate how you construct your coaching staffs (in order to maintain a good one). Players with 10 years mlb time get the pension benefits, so a team would have to have a good amount of those types on their coaching staff to be able to keep the ones that don’t happy.

[zambonir]

Manfred won't punish Turner for leaving isolation

[andyb]

That is certainly a lawyer/agent prepared statement. They should have given him a game or two suspension next season at the very least. They just give the impression of a non-serious policy when they do stuff like this. MLB should not use SEC football as a model here.