News of Former Phillies 2019/2020

[tom81]

I bet Cesar does what his buddy Freddy did, puts up his best years away from Philly, and is a bargain for whoever signs him.

[mdougherty12]

I bet Cesar does what his buddy Freddy did, puts up his best years away from Philly, and is a bargain for whoever signs him.

Even in the middle of one of his best seasons, Galvis was still, literally, waiver bait.

[zambonir]

If you look at the MLBTR article, Cesar had a .358 BABIP in 2016-2017, and .314 the past two years. So it's possible Cesar wasn't so much injured or in decline as simply got back to his normal level (while trading some OBP for power which may or may not have been good).

And yes Galvis is still pretty much terrible (.296 OBP last year) but he catches the ball and has been part of the MLB power surge. I doubt he'll hit 20 home runs again (though he did it once for us too).

[allentown]

I wonder what BABIP looks like year by year. He put WAY more balls in play in 2019 than in 2018. -- between BB, Ks, and HRs 106 more balls in play for the season. That's almost a sixth of his plate appearances.

[zambonir]

Hard to figure it out in some ways - he struck out less, power was up, but OBP was career-worst (as a starter) and OPS+ dropped again. And he still put up more WAR than Freddy (who had the same OPS+ as Cesar last year - Cesar's career-worst was Freddy's career-best).

So anyway - I'm not too worried about Cesar making the Phillies look bad (especially since they gladly would have kept him for whatever Cleveland will end up paying) and we aren't being shown up by Freddy either. It's nice we actually got something for him though.

[tom81]

I’m I had forgotten about this former Phillie. Nice paycheck!

Rangers Sign Joely Rodriguez

[Philsmania]

Erik Kratz with another tour of duty with the Yankees organization.

Yankees, Erik Kratz Agree To Minor League Deal

[mdougherty12]

Kratz turns 40 in June. He's still ~4 months shy of 6 years of MLB service time.

[zambonir]

Meaning he can finally achieve free agency if he gets up there long enough?

(I assume that also gets him pension and insurance stuff.)

[zambonir]

Eudabray Ramos actually on MLBTR's list of potential bounce-back/dumpster dive FAs.

9 Relatively Youthful Bounceback Pitching Targets

I'm not sure I agree that Ramos had firmly established a solid MLB ceiling. He did have pretty nice numbers and yet they choose to keep him buried in AAA, (partly because he had options) and he never seemed to move back up the depth chart (only made the team last year because Arano got hurt, then kept getting hurt himself).

Eickhoff and Smyly on this list too.

[David_Criss]

Walker, Smyly and Ramos are all three arms I wouldn't mind seeing brought in/back on minor league and/or incentive laden deal(s).

[andyb]

Walker is definitely the guy that has some upside if he gets healthy. Might be nice to have an incentive-laden deal where we would not count on him at all the first couple of months, but then he might have enough time to work himself back into shape.

Ramos too is mainly health questions to me. His stuff backed up a bit so I was assuming he was not entirely healthy and the Phillies just did a cost/benefit analysis when they let him go.

[zambonir]

The Royals, who revamped their hitting-development department late in the season with director of hitting performance Alec Zumwalt streamlining communication among hitting coaches, noticed a few oddities in Franco’s swing from his more successful seasons (2016-18) to last season (2019) in a video study session. The Royals are optimistic they can correct him.

Royals mailbag: Maikel Franco, Alex Gordon, a downtown...

Maybe the writer just got the years wrong? Franco was successful in 2015. 2017 was his career-worst season. 2016 wasn't especially great.

[Lawman]

Cesar to Cleveland on a 1 year deal, $6.25M.

[zambonir]

I wonder if, should the next CBA allow for earlier free agency and better pay in years 1-3, if the players would also agree to a system that more easily allows for arbitration pay cuts. It stinks for Cesar that he wasn't able to get his last service time-based paycheck, but if the Phillies could have just just offered him a small raise or a small pay cut, knowing that he couldn't possibly win in arbitration based on performance, he still would have done better than what Cleveland gave him. And had his pay been more performance-based earlier in his career he'd have already been paid the money he's now missed out on this year.

[julio]

Yeah, it stinks that Cesar has to try to get by on only $6.25 million.

That seems to be what the market - a relatively free market (as compared to the structural constraints that impact the majority of MLB salaries) - thinks he's worth.

Yeah, Cesar may be about a 2-WAR player. But he's a mediocre second baseman, who can't effectively play on the left side of the diamond, or in the outfield. What is a 2-WAR player who is limited to 2B really worth? It may be that $6 million is about a market-clearing price for such a player.

[zambonir]

Sure but he was easily worth 8-10 million in 2016 to 2017. And there is no actual (free/true) "market" deciding these things. The thumb is on the scale, in many different ways, even if some of that is with the MLBPA's consent.

[allentown]

I don't think it is so much a big thumb on the scale with Cesar as it is a glut of good 2B and his positional inflexibility. Changes in emphasis/valuation of different positions and glut or scarcity at different positions is a roller coaster over the span of years in most sports. Look at the changing views of LBs and RBs in the NFL, not to even be super particular and focus on FBs. It's not the time in baseball history that teams are going to pay a ton of $ for a 2 WAR 2B on the down-side of his career.

[zambonir]

Lucky for us we have a 1.3 WAR shortstop making $14.5 million to play 2B instead.

[phillychuck]

Although I agree with your implication to an extent, Segura at 2B should be much better than 1.3 WAR. He's coming off of a down year, and he'll be better defensively at 2B. I'd play him at 3B, though, and put Kingery at 2B. Then trade Segura for a better bat at 3B if possible.