MLB 2023 Miscellaneous News

[AKCheesehead]

Apparently it started in 2020. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

Padres Owner Seidler passed away at 63....2x cancer survivor, but also had a series of recent health issues that weren't overly public, so tough to tell if he was dealing with significant issues behind the scenes for some time.

Not blaming anyone to keep their health issues private in the least...all I will say is this could help partly explain why he may have been ok with the Padres spending crazily and way beyond what their market can sustain the last handful of years if he knew time was short for him to witness his team winning a title.  The Padres taking out a $50m loan to meet payroll obligations recently (they initially asked for $100m) tells alot about serious revenue issues on their end right now.

[Brewcrew82]

Looks like the A's are going to become just the second franchise in half a century to relocate tomorrow. Relocation committee, headed by one Mark Attanasio, and Manfred have given their official stamp of approval. Thank God they were able to get the Am Fam funding deal done. Couldn't imagine losing my team. 

https://apnews.com/article/oakland-as-relocation-las-vegas-530bb1475a95e9c435947d5b44033225

[torts]

54 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Padres Owner Seidler passed away at 63....2x cancer survivor, but also had a series of recent health issues that weren't overly public, so tough to tell if he was dealing with significant issues behind the scenes for some time.

Not blaming anyone to keep their health issues private in the least...all I will say is this could help partly explain why he may have been ok with the Padres spending crazily and way beyond what their market can sustain the last handful of years if he knew time was short seeing for him to witness his team winning a title.  The Padres taking out a $50m loan to meet payroll obligations recently (they initially asked for $100m) tells alot about serious revenue issues on their end right now.

Wow, that does explain them pushing all the chips in

[pitchleague]

And today marked the end of the least surprising MLB Awards season in a long time. . . .

[sveumrules]

5 hours ago, pitchleague said:

And today marked the end of the least surprising MLB Awards season in a long time. . . .

Looks like Contreras finished 11th (highest vote 5th) and Devin finished 20th for NL MVP voting.

Burnes finished 8th in NL CY with Bill Plunkett the OC Register putting him 2nd on his ballot.

[LouisEly]

The Braves acquired LHRP Aaron Bummer from the White Sox for a package of RHP Mike Soroka, INF Nicky Lopez, LHP Jared Shuster, SS Braden Shewmake, RHP Riley Gowens.  Bummer had a terrible ERA, 5.6 BB/9, and 1.526 WHIP but a much better 3.58 FIP and 12 K/9.

I know that Soroka isn't what he was pre-injuries, but if that's the market for 30-year-old erratic relievers making $5.5M - $7.5M per year then I'd love to see what the Brewers can get for Payamps. 

[CheeseheadInQC]

43 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

The Braves acquired LHRP Aaron Bummer from the White Sox for a package of RHP Mike Soroka, INF Nicky Lopez, LHP Jared Shuster, SS Braden Shewmake, RHP Riley Gowens.  Bummer had a terrible ERA, 5.6 BB/9, and 1.526 WHIP but a much better 3.58 FIP and 12 K/9.

I know that Soroka isn't what he was pre-injuries, but if that's the market for 30-year-old erratic relievers making $5.5M - $7.5M per year then I'd love to see what the Brewers can get for Payamps. 

Counterpoint: You could make a good case the best player the White Sox got was dealt over the summer for a reliever with a negative career WAR.

[wibadgers23]

Just imagine what Devin Williams would fetch in a trade!

[nate82]

55 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

The Braves acquired LHRP Aaron Bummer from the White Sox for a package of RHP Mike Soroka, INF Nicky Lopez, LHP Jared Shuster, SS Braden Shewmake, RHP Riley Gowens.  Bummer had a terrible ERA, 5.6 BB/9, and 1.526 WHIP but a much better 3.58 FIP and 12 K/9.

I know that Soroka isn't what he was pre-injuries, but if that's the market for 30-year-old erratic relievers making $5.5M - $7.5M per year then I'd love to see what the Brewers can get for Payamps. 

It is a lot of players and the Braves farm system isn't all that great and the players the White Sox got back are not that great.  Soroka has negative value and the others have very little to no value. 

Lopez is a 29 year old SS who hasn't been anything special offensively and the majority of his value comes from his defense.  He posted a 75 OPS+ last year and has a career 73 OPS+. 

Shuster is a career 4.44 ERA minor league pitcher who looks to be a last guy in the bullpen type of a pitcher. 

Shewmake in the minors hasn't replicated what he did in college.  Though he does have the lost year of 2020 but he hasn't shown anything that he will be more than a utility or just an organizational minor league player.

Gowens is probably the only player the White Sox got back who could be something.  Though he was only drafted this year in the 9th round by the Braves. 

Solid trade for the White Sox but it isn't a massive overpay.  The Braves also tend to overpay for relievers.

 

[jay87shot]

The Mariners traded a decent young reliever to pay Urias who was very good with the Red Sox outside of 1 mega game. 

The Padres non-tendered Austin Nola who I think would be a decent vet backup for Contreras even though he was trash last year.

The Braves made another puzzling trade of Kyle Wright (great in 2022, garbage 23, out all 24) for Jackson Kowar of the Royals who has just been overall bad, even in AAA.

 

[Ewitkows1]

Nola gets 7/172. Way over pay for a 4 era pitcher who was actually closer to 5 era this year.

[sveumrules]

19 minutes ago, Ewitkows1 said:

Nola gets 7/172. Way over pay for a 4 era pitcher who was actually closer to 5 era this year.

Yeah, looks like MLBTR had 6/150 and FanGraphs had 5/140 for Nola. No hometown discount for the Phils.

ZiPS projects him for about 14 WAR over the seven years. Steamer likes him a bit more (4.2 WAR for 2024 vs 3.4 WAR from ZiPS) so maybe closer to 18-19 WAR on the high end. 

[torts]

3 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Yeah, looks like MLBTR had 6/150 and FanGraphs had 5/140 for Nola. No hometown discount for the Phils.

ZiPS projects him for about 14 WAR over the seven years. Steamer likes him a bit more (4.2 WAR for 2024 vs 3.4 WAR from ZiPS) so maybe closer to 18-19 WAR on the high end. 

Burnes is going to get P.A.I.D. next fall

[kestrel79]

Yep I bet Burnes enjoyed seeing this deal.

[Underachiever]

Burnes should develop some "forearm soreness" or an "oblique strain" and not pitch until August. Have a good string of starts, and avoid what happened to Woodruff. He just needs to "survive til '25!"

[tmwiese55]

20 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

Burnes should develop some "forearm soreness" or an "oblique strain" and not pitch until August. Have a good string of starts, and avoid what happened to Woodruff. He just needs to "survive til '25!"

Obviously we all assume he's gonna get traded.  I would guess its to a team with hopes/goals of keeping him long term.  If I'm him I just take the 7/225 or whatever it is before the year starts and don't worry about it ever again. 

[torts]

5 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

Obviously we all assume he's gonna get traded.  I would guess its to a team with hopes/goals of keeping him long term.  If I'm him I just take the 7/225 or whatever it is before the year starts and don't worry about it ever again. 

Yeah he's not doing that, he's going to sign 7 years next November for more than that

[tmwiese55]

9 minutes ago, torts said:

Yeah he's not doing that, he's going to sign 7 years next November for more than that

I'd assume that too.  I just mean if you're already going to the big paying team why not just do it now.  Say he gets traded to LAD, they were the whale you wanted to pay you anyway, just work it out before the year so what happened to Woody doesn't happen to you.   

If he's on us or a team like say Bal who isn't know to pay then for sure he's doing that.  But if you're on LAD, SF, Mets, Yanks, Bos type team then you might as well just figure it out now.  Those are the type of teams you want anyway.    And yea maybe 215 or whatever I said might be low, I was just throwing something out there.

[nate82]

Mariners and Dbacks make a trade.

 

[owbc]

3 hours ago, nate82 said:

Mariners and Dbacks make a trade.

 

This is largely a salary dump by Seattle -- looks like Luis Urías will start at 3B for them in 2024.

[BrewerFan]

On 11/20/2023 at 8:34 AM, kestrel79 said:

Yep I bet Burnes enjoyed seeing this deal.

I'm not minding this deal myself. For all the talk about Burnes no longer being viewed as an ace, and his return being smaller than anticipated, this should disabuse people of that notion. 

[wallus]

Kelenic to the Braves in a salary dump trade.

[owbc]

6 minutes ago, wallus said:

Kelenic to the Braves in a salary dump trade.

The Mariners are clearly going to make some sort of expensive acquisition but I have zero confidence in it being a smart one. What kind of idiot GM gives away Kelenic for $20M in salary savings? 

[Brewcrew82]

7 minutes ago, owbc said:

The Mariners are clearly going to make some sort of expensive acquisition but I have zero confidence in it being a smart one. What kind of idiot GM gives away Kelenic for $20M in salary savings? 

I could see them inserting themselves into the Soto sweepstakes.