Three MLB Veterans - Keller, Gonzales, Perez - and a number of guys who threw a lot of innings last year for the Pirates - Ortiz 86.2 IP, Contreras 68.1 IP, Quinn Priester 50 IP, Andre Jackson 43.2 IP, and Falter 40.1 IP. Max Kranick should be ready to go full bore at ST. Contreras, Kranick, Jackson, and Falter are out of Options. Possibly Jackson and Falter?
I guess to be honest, the Pirates are hoping for some stellar work from all of these guys in ST to possibly include one or two in a trade or two before breaking camp. Others possible to see added into those trades could be either Ji-Hwan Bae or Nick Gonzales, and others.
Perez is acceptable LHer, but clearly 2022 was an outlier in his career. Expect a mid 4's era, nothing great but serviceable. I'm all for starting 3 LHers in a row (Falter) and for moving the OF fence back about 10 feet at PNC. This reinforces we need good OF defense with these soft-tossing pitch to contact additions.
Under 100 K for perez in 144 innings, kinda scary but a profile that we seem to have some luck with. Maybe they see something in pitch mix or he needs sweeper training
MLBTR notes that he was much better in '23 when he was moved to the pen and his splits bear that out, so he could have value even if he doesn't bounce back as a starter.
I had forgotten that he received and accepted a QO in '22. One year later we're getting him at about 40% of what the Rangers paid last year. So I like this signing, but it doesn't do anything to suggest that we're not still shopping the bargain bin.
Going into this offseason we had 0 players on the 40-man from Venezuela and now we'll have three. I know they didn't say back in October "we need more Venezuelans" :), but it seems nice for each of those guys that they have a couple of countrymen as teammates.
Not entirely a mirage. Boston had him as a 5-pitch guy, working with a four-seamer, curve, change, cutter combo against righties and a two-seamer and slider against lefties. Texas dropped most of that and had him just use his 2-seamer and cutter, tossing in his change against righties. against everyone. It worked much better. His problem last year was serving up a few too many meatballs. If he can stay off the center of the plate and not give up too many HRs, he will be fine. Also, some of the HRs he gave up in Texas would be deep flyouts to right at PNC.
A couple of red flags for me. His home run rate was well outside his career norms. K rate and GB rate dove last year too. He pitched about a run ahead of the defense independent pitching stats. Not saying it’s an awful signing, I just don’t know that I would expect much more than the Steamer projection?
I don't know what the budget is or where Cherington is at. If that money could have been added to another contract to bring in a better pitcher (i.e. Imanaga), then it was a not a good idea. Without taking into account how they are managing the budget or anything else, $8 million for Perez is a good deal. I would take it every time. I would say that last season is a floor. I doubt the ceiling is a sub 3 ERA, but 3.8, 3.9 ERA, working 6 solid innings 20-23 times next season is a ceiling that he has a good chance of reaching.
They’ve had some luck with lefties so I wouldn’t be stunned to see him outpace the projection. Guys at this end of the market are always risky though. I’d like the move a lot more if they weren’t signing him to slot behind Keller.
That's the key--they can't be looking at him as a #2 or even #3 but as a solid #4 or #5.
Remarkably, given recent history, we could have three lefties in the rotation. I hope not because none of them are projected to be very good, but still an interesting possibility.
It would be nice if Cherington actually did something to improve the team or is that asking too much? Gonzales at least partially fills in the Oviedo hole but that’s only back to status quo at best. None of these other moves amount to anything as far as I can see. I’m gonna start looking around to see if I can locate my panic button. I know it’s around here someplace.
The Othani contract, I never thought that would go past 500, and even that amount seemed stupid. 700, no matter how is structured is just insane. I thought that Soto was dumb by not taking the reported extension offered by the Nationals, but he was not. He is gonna easily reach the 500 mark next year.
Actual dollars spent is still going to be $700 million. The Dodgers will have at least $80 million in dead money per year with deferred contracts starting in 2034. No one knows how effective of a pitcher Ohtani will be when he hits the mound again and how his arm will respond when he bats in games. Pretty big risk on Ohtani by the Dodgers.
Imo, considering how much they can spend, it's pretty crappy that the Dodgers are allowed to defer money, so that they can sign/extend players within this current window.
Deferring has been allowed for some time. They already had deferred deals with Bets and Freeman at least. They will be paying $80 million plus in dead money starting in 2034.
Not calling out you specifically here, but nobody has ever argued the Competitive Balance Tax has anything to do with competitive balance. If that were the goal then a floor clearly would be paired with the cap and centralized revenues would support all ends of the market.
CBT is openly understood to be a policy for the big market owners, by the big market owners, to limit what they can spend as means of increasing their already-absurd profits.
I'm not sure why we're all the sudden pretending this is anything but the Dodgers simply willing to spend what money they have, which is something every fan of every team would want for their own.
I'm a big Endy guy so his injury put an early damper on my thoughts of paying to watch them play. But as far as the Winter League question, if Endy would have not played winter ball and got off to a bad start then many people would have been screaming he should have played winter ball, lol.
Yes, the injury is very unfortunate but assuming he was fully healthy when he started play there (e.g., no weakness in the elbow), there was more to be gained from playing winter ball than lost. Plus, it gave him a chance to play in his home country--we shouldn't deny our players the chance to do that (I didn't like that we prevented Choi from playing for Korea in the WBC, for example).
He seemed fine at the end of the 2023 as far as his play went behind the plate. The only previous stint on the injury list was 7 days in April 2023 at Indy. Don't remember what it was for though.
The elbow injuries to Oviedo and Endy does raise the question, though, of whether our staff is doing everything they can to prevent injuries. I'm not suggesting they're not, but could they have foreseen that Oviedo should have been limited in his innings in September (he far exceeded previous innings) or that Endy needed time for his body to recover instead of going into winter ball soon after his first season of playing through September ended?
It's at least a question that should be asked when young players are allowed to go well beyond their previous workloads and then experience devastating injuries.
Endy was simply swinging a bat. If there was a way to have players avoid injuries and any team was not following the protocols that were supposed to suppress injuries, the MLBPA would be front and center screaming how a team was putting their players at serious risk.
It's not about what he was doing but whether he needed rest before doing it. I supported him playing winter ball. But it seems that in the last year we've had more than our share of young players coming down with serious injuries related to overuse, and in at least a couple of cases those injuries came during a period when they had already far exceeded their previous workload.
TJ surgery is gonna happen, like it or not. I don’t think any of these guys went under the knife due to malpractice. Pitchers get hurt, it’s as certain as death and taxes.
As for Oviedo, he likely paid the price for so many others going down early on. This is a task for someone with far more time on their hands, but until 2023, the Bucs seemed pretty lucky with TJ surgeries. They got hit with a bunch at once. Maybe if they built an actual MLB team it wouldn’t be such a big hurdle.
Three MLB Veterans - Keller, Gonzales, Perez - and a number of guys who threw a lot of innings last year for the Pirates - Ortiz 86.2 IP, Contreras 68.1 IP, Quinn Priester 50 IP, Andre Jackson 43.2 IP, and Falter 40.1 IP. Max Kranick should be ready to go full bore at ST. Contreras, Kranick, Jackson, and Falter are out of Options. Possibly Jackson and Falter?
I guess to be honest, the Pirates are hoping for some stellar work from all of these guys in ST to possibly include one or two in a trade or two before breaking camp. Others possible to see added into those trades could be either Ji-Hwan Bae or Nick Gonzales, and others.
This rotation is giving me serious bridge year vibes. He’s making a left handed bridge to get to Skenes, Bubba, Jones, Solo.
Going into year five and BC is still just acquiring guys he hopes to trade at the deadline for a C+ prospect.
It's difficult to understand the Plan.
Perez is acceptable LHer, but clearly 2022 was an outlier in his career. Expect a mid 4's era, nothing great but serviceable. I'm all for starting 3 LHers in a row (Falter) and for moving the OF fence back about 10 feet at PNC. This reinforces we need good OF defense with these soft-tossing pitch to contact additions.
Still think it's a perfect time to go after Jorge Barossa.
The only 2 positions on the field where defense matters is 3B and C. So says Cherington, and so I believe.
He has not been acceptable in the post-season. 1 start, 7 relief appearances, 12.2 IP, 9.24 ERA.
Any day now they’re going to sign Zach Duke.
Steven Brault may be reconsidering retirement.
So who gets lopped off the 40?
Alika williams? When can guys go on the 60-day DL? Have 2 or 3 of those coming.
Probably 4, Bru, Oviedo, Endy and Mike B.
They never put Mike B on the 60 day last year, I don't think they will now. The rest make sense
Can't go on 60-day until March sometime.
Gonna need a spot for Cutch very soon, apparently.
My guess is Williams or Kranick unless Ben grows some balls and pulls off a trade that can actually improve the team or get a prospect back.
eating Arepa´s tonight to celebrate
now go get Justin Turner and roll the dice on Manoah for Jared Jones
that´s an 84 win team
Under 100 K for perez in 144 innings, kinda scary but a profile that we seem to have some luck with. Maybe they see something in pitch mix or he needs sweeper training
MLBTR notes that he was much better in '23 when he was moved to the pen and his splits bear that out, so he could have value even if he doesn't bounce back as a starter.
I had forgotten that he received and accepted a QO in '22. One year later we're getting him at about 40% of what the Rangers paid last year. So I like this signing, but it doesn't do anything to suggest that we're not still shopping the bargain bin.
He was a $4M pitcher and then Rangers overpaid QO $19.6M.
$8M is probably the right value in today's hot pitchers market.
Going into this offseason we had 0 players on the 40-man from Venezuela and now we'll have three. I know they didn't say back in October "we need more Venezuelans" :), but it seems nice for each of those guys that they have a couple of countrymen as teammates.
rip jose
Pirates signed Martin Perez.
If the Halos will eat about half of Andersons contract, we could corner the market on bounce back lefties.
Alex Wood still out there
Hyun Jin Ryu
Paxton has mostly been effective except when he's injured, which happens to be about 85% of the time lol.
Could be worse markets to corner i suppose
good price
Seems like a good signing with some upside given that as recently as '22 he was worth 4 WAR.
That year was probably a mirage unfortunately. Steamer has him at 1 WAR, which is probably a safe bet.
Not entirely a mirage. Boston had him as a 5-pitch guy, working with a four-seamer, curve, change, cutter combo against righties and a two-seamer and slider against lefties. Texas dropped most of that and had him just use his 2-seamer and cutter, tossing in his change against righties. against everyone. It worked much better. His problem last year was serving up a few too many meatballs. If he can stay off the center of the plate and not give up too many HRs, he will be fine. Also, some of the HRs he gave up in Texas would be deep flyouts to right at PNC.
A couple of red flags for me. His home run rate was well outside his career norms. K rate and GB rate dove last year too. He pitched about a run ahead of the defense independent pitching stats. Not saying it’s an awful signing, I just don’t know that I would expect much more than the Steamer projection?
I don't know what the budget is or where Cherington is at. If that money could have been added to another contract to bring in a better pitcher (i.e. Imanaga), then it was a not a good idea. Without taking into account how they are managing the budget or anything else, $8 million for Perez is a good deal. I would take it every time. I would say that last season is a floor. I doubt the ceiling is a sub 3 ERA, but 3.8, 3.9 ERA, working 6 solid innings 20-23 times next season is a ceiling that he has a good chance of reaching.
And we're paying market rate for 1 WAR, so I'm okay with that on a one-year deal. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll be worth a couple of WAR.
They’ve had some luck with lefties so I wouldn’t be stunned to see him outpace the projection. Guys at this end of the market are always risky though. I’d like the move a lot more if they weren’t signing him to slot behind Keller.
That's the key--they can't be looking at him as a #2 or even #3 but as a solid #4 or #5.
Remarkably, given recent history, we could have three lefties in the rotation. I hope not because none of them are projected to be very good, but still an interesting possibility.
Now who gets dropped off the 40.. I noticed Kranick has no options, is he really a candidate to make the opening day roster?
Yohan Ramirez is now a Met.
It would be nice if Cherington actually did something to improve the team or is that asking too much? Gonzales at least partially fills in the Oviedo hole but that’s only back to status quo at best. None of these other moves amount to anything as far as I can see. I’m gonna start looking around to see if I can locate my panic button. I know it’s around here someplace.
The Othani contract, I never thought that would go past 500, and even that amount seemed stupid. 700, no matter how is structured is just insane. I thought that Soto was dumb by not taking the reported extension offered by the Nationals, but he was not. He is gonna easily reach the 500 mark next year.
Especially for a DH. I know he pitches some too, but does that really justify his contract?
It was mind-blowing initially, but given that the structure values the deal around $460MM, in hindsight it doesn't seem that surprising.
I think what will be stupid is what some team pays Bellinger or Snell, but we'll see.
Actual dollars spent is still going to be $700 million. The Dodgers will have at least $80 million in dead money per year with deferred contracts starting in 2034. No one knows how effective of a pitcher Ohtani will be when he hits the mound again and how his arm will respond when he bats in games. Pretty big risk on Ohtani by the Dodgers.
Totally agree with ou on Bellinger and Snell……
Imo, considering how much they can spend, it's pretty crappy that the Dodgers are allowed to defer money, so that they can sign/extend players within this current window.
Deferring has been allowed for some time. They already had deferred deals with Bets and Freeman at least. They will be paying $80 million plus in dead money starting in 2034.
Not calling out you specifically here, but nobody has ever argued the Competitive Balance Tax has anything to do with competitive balance. If that were the goal then a floor clearly would be paired with the cap and centralized revenues would support all ends of the market.
CBT is openly understood to be a policy for the big market owners, by the big market owners, to limit what they can spend as means of increasing their already-absurd profits.
I'm not sure why we're all the sudden pretending this is anything but the Dodgers simply willing to spend what money they have, which is something every fan of every team would want for their own.
Smells more of envy than rigorous policy, to me.
I'm not envious. I don't understand the rules around structuring contacts and didn't realize teams could defer that kind of money.
I heard Nutting matched the Otani offer in total $$.
He offered $1/year for the next 700 years (no interest). The glitch was that Nutting wanted a team option starting in 10 years.
Ohtani’s agent got suspicious when the bills had the Monopoly guy’s face on them.
same guy is a pharmacist in mexico
https://www.farmaciasdesimilares.com/
Lol!
Endy will get a full year of service, which will come with a full year of ML pay
I'm a big Endy guy so his injury put an early damper on my thoughts of paying to watch them play. But as far as the Winter League question, if Endy would have not played winter ball and got off to a bad start then many people would have been screaming he should have played winter ball, lol.
Yes, the injury is very unfortunate but assuming he was fully healthy when he started play there (e.g., no weakness in the elbow), there was more to be gained from playing winter ball than lost. Plus, it gave him a chance to play in his home country--we shouldn't deny our players the chance to do that (I didn't like that we prevented Choi from playing for Korea in the WBC, for example).
He seemed fine at the end of the 2023 as far as his play went behind the plate. The only previous stint on the injury list was 7 days in April 2023 at Indy. Don't remember what it was for though.
The elbow injuries to Oviedo and Endy does raise the question, though, of whether our staff is doing everything they can to prevent injuries. I'm not suggesting they're not, but could they have foreseen that Oviedo should have been limited in his innings in September (he far exceeded previous innings) or that Endy needed time for his body to recover instead of going into winter ball soon after his first season of playing through September ended?
It's at least a question that should be asked when young players are allowed to go well beyond their previous workloads and then experience devastating injuries.
Endy was simply swinging a bat. If there was a way to have players avoid injuries and any team was not following the protocols that were supposed to suppress injuries, the MLBPA would be front and center screaming how a team was putting their players at serious risk.
It's not about what he was doing but whether he needed rest before doing it. I supported him playing winter ball. But it seems that in the last year we've had more than our share of young players coming down with serious injuries related to overuse, and in at least a couple of cases those injuries came during a period when they had already far exceeded their previous workload.
TJ surgery is gonna happen, like it or not. I don’t think any of these guys went under the knife due to malpractice. Pitchers get hurt, it’s as certain as death and taxes.
As for Oviedo, he likely paid the price for so many others going down early on. This is a task for someone with far more time on their hands, but until 2023, the Bucs seemed pretty lucky with TJ surgeries. They got hit with a bunch at once. Maybe if they built an actual MLB team it wouldn’t be such a big hurdle.