Per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, the deal contains $50 million in deferred money, a less-extreme version of what the team did with Shohei Ohtani's $700 million deal last winter. Smith will receive between $9.5 million and $13.55 million each season through 2033, then $5 million per year between 2034 and 2043. The deal also reportedly contains a $30 million signing bonus.
So he just turned 29 and is signed through his age 38 season. AAV is $12.5 million. JT is going to be looking for an extension covering his ages 36-38 seasons, and it's hard to imagine the Phillies not giving him one, though it ought to be for less than that and they'll obviously need a second catcher to play more. Maybe I'm wrong, they did let Rhys go but replacing him via free agency - let alone a Braves-like Murphy-type trade - easier said than done. Fortunately they do have next year to try and bring in a back-up or possible future tandem partner. Looking less and less likely that will be Marchan.
Interesting article from the Ringer on pitcher injuries. Apparently there is a major MLB study going on to figure out if there are any systemic changes needed. Clearly to me the emphasis on velocity and spin needs to be lessened. The end of the article gets at this but its solution is to have fewer pitchers on the roster. I think that is misguided and we'd just shuffle more pitchers through the last spots on a staff.
My solution? Deaden the baseball and tighten the strike zone. Make it harder to hit the ball 500 feet and players would have less incentive for an all or nothing approach. But if you also tighten the zone (certainly this would have to be automated) it would be harder to throw strikes with all that max effort pitching deliveries. With a deader ball pitchers would throw more strikes because the penalty of missing would not be as harsh.
MLB has been really aggressive with rule changes around the pace of play and they clearly see this as a problem. Hopefully they come back with a better solution compared to "fewer pitchers on the roster" which the union would never go for anyway. Pitchers are being trained as max effort devices to be used and replaced when they get hurt. There has to be a better way.
I hate to say it, but the advantage of the current pitching environment of pitching hard till your arm wears out is many more players get to experience a major league career (at least a short one till they are injured and they don't get too hurt in the minors). Without needing injury replacements how many pitchers wouldn't ever reach the majors or even upper minor leagues?
If they can find some more pitching the Orioles could be beginning a dynasty. Look at what their AAA club did yesterday. Heston Kjerstad has 18 RBI so far in the season. Jackson Holiday had 4 hits. First 6 guys in the lineup have an OPS over 1000 and the others are over 800.
I would have said the Angelos family would have found a way to muck it all up but they don't own the O's anymore. Like with the Astros, The Process worked for them--bad ML team provided strong draft position which was capitalized on. The Process didn't really work for the Phillies who had to buy their way to WS contention. The question is will their farm system keep humming once their draft picks sink to the back of the draft leading to the question of how long this will be sustainable.. If not, the sugar high will eventually wear off. Even with picks toward the end of the draft for nearly a decade now, the Astros keep finding and producing talent especially from Latin America.
The process worked for them like it did for the Astros because they hired Astros people. We hired people who had no idea what they were doing with any of it - new school or old school, process or win-now, drafting or developing. We're fortunate the money was able to buy out a lot of those mistakes, and that they got lucky with their second shot at a President of Baseball Operations (who has also exceeded expectations IMO in terms of his ability to straddle the different approaches) and that not everybody from the Klentak front office was worthless.
(Also, ironically, the guys we hired all came from the Orioles, though Klentak had left for Anaheim by then.)
Looks like the Marlins are already going to reboot and start their new era with a Rays-like approach.
The Marlins seemed to have a good thing coming together but then Sherman kneecapped Jeter (who was close to signing hometown guy Castellanos until Sherman vetoed the expenditure) and then Ng.
I actually went to a minor league baseball game during the last eclipse. First pitch was around 10am and then they stopped things for an hour. I'm surprised Cleveland isn't doing that because it's still likely to be impossible to get around the city at that point. NYC shouldn't matter since there's not totality, but it would affect game conditions too.
Update: Atlanta ace Spencer Strider underwent an MRI that revealed damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He'll be further evaluated by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, TX.
Within one week’s time, Shane Bieber and Eury Perez have needed Tommy John surgery and Spencer Strider has serious elbow concerns. Gerrit Cole is out until at least June with elbow issues, too.
The players association is blaming the faster pitching clock for the injuries. I'm not sure there is a correlation, but maybe not letting the pitcher let his arm relax enough between pitches could play a factor in arm injuries. I think it's more about the increased velocity pitchers are using in shorter stints now.
Mar '24
Oct '24
