MLB 2023 Miscellaneous News

[nate82]

11 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? 

Ohtani?

[owbc]

9 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

I could see them inserting themselves into the Soto sweepstakes. 

It makes more sense than Ohtani since it would fill the hole they just created.

I strongly feel that Kelenic is a late bloomer and they just sold low on him…and especially since it was to the Braves who know what they are doing. 

[Jopal78]

6 hours ago, owbc said:

It makes more sense than Ohtani since it would fill the hole they just created.

I strongly feel that Kelenic is a late bloomer and they just sold low on him…and especially since it was to the Braves who know what they are doing. 

Kelenic got nearly 1000 PAs in Seattle and his career bWAR is zero. At some point, it doesn’t matter if the pundits say a player is a top prospect, they need to play like it. 

[owbc]

4 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

Kelenic got nearly 1000 PAs in Seattle and his career bWAR is zero. At some point, it doesn’t matter if the pundits say a player is a top prospect, they need to play like it. 

What would you do if you lost your right fielder to free agency and your left fielder is a 24 year old coming off of a 2 WAR / .745 OPS age 23 season with 5 years of team control remaining? 

Would you use him to dump $20M in salary, thus creating vacancies at both corner outfield positions? 

[jerichoholicninja]

At first glance I thought what a horrible trade for Seattle. Then when I read the details and looked into the players Seattle gave up I did a total 180. Kelenic has to turn into something or Atlanta just took on a load of cash for nothing.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Ticked that MLB won't implement some sort of waiver rule changes to prevent what the Angels did last August to skirt themselves back under the luxury tax threshold and avoid significant financial penalties that are, in part, shared across lower-revenue ballclubs from happening again.  Could be as simple as locking in an organization's payroll figure that determines the following year's luxury tax accounting right after the 8/1 trade deadline.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, owbc said:

What would you do if you lost your right fielder to free agency and your left fielder is a 24 year old coming off of a 2 WAR / .745 OPS age 23 season with 5 years of team control remaining? 

Would you use him to dump $20M in salary, thus creating vacancies at both corner outfield positions? 

Probably. A .745 OPS in ‘23 puts him right around 90th overall in league OPS.

Plus, even with a WAR of 2.0 in ‘23 his career bWAR is 0 and 1000 PAs is starting to be a significant sample. 
I get it, he was a big time prospect so there is always the hope and chance he will put it all together; but that’s also tempered with those 1000 PAs where he has shown to be more of a mediocre major league comer outfielder than a blooming star player . 
 

As someone else pointed out, the Mariners are taking a calculated risk:  if Kelenic becomes the player he was touted to be it will haunt the Mariners. In the short run they cleared 32 million dollars of guaranteed contracts of their books which they can reallocate in free agency,  got two intriguing young arms and did not give up any of the top hitters or pitchers from an 88 win team. 

[owbc]

8 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Probably. A .745 OPS in ‘23 puts him right around 90th overall in league OPS.

Plus, even with a WAR of 2.0 in ‘23 his career bWAR is 0 and 1000 PAs is starting to be a significant sample. 
I get it, he was a big time prospect so there is always the hope and chance he will put it all together; but that’s also tempered with those 1000 PAs where he has shown to be more of a mediocre major league comer outfielder than a blooming star player . 
 

As someone else pointed out, the Mariners are taking a calculated risk:  if Kelenic becomes the player he was touted to be it will haunt the Mariners. In the short run they cleared 32 million dollars of guaranteed contracts of their books which they can reallocate in free agency,  got two intriguing young arms and did not give up any of the top hitters or pitchers from an 88 win team. 

I appreciate you talking me off the ledge here, but in the end it depends what they do with the money in free agency, which remains TBD. In my view the Mariners shouldn't need to operate with a Milwaukee Brewers level of frugality, but that's the situation their fans are stuck with. Given their salary constraints, the Robbie Ray contract is an abomination...and they are now rumored to be interested in Matt Chapman because even with their newfound $30 million savings, they are still rumored to be out on Soto and Ohtani. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

If Kelenic wasn't a WI product, we'd all pretty much presume his ceiling was that of an average MLB corner OF, and the most likely career arc for him would be more along the lines of something less than that who never came close to the prospect hype he generated.

Then again, the Braves seem to be pretty adept at getting as much offensive production out of guys as they're capable of providing and Kelenic is still just 24...if there's one place he could find a way to reach that potential, it'd be ATL.

[owbc]

41 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

If Kelenic wasn't a WI product, we'd all pretty much presume his ceiling was that of an average MLB corner OF, and the most likely career arc for him would be more along the lines of something less than that who never came close to the prospect hype he generated.

Then again, the Braves seem to be pretty adept at getting as much offensive production out of guys as they're capable of providing and Kelenic is still just 24...if there's one place he could find a way to reach that potential, it'd be ATL.

His struggles are almost entirely mental. No shortage of talent, he's just trying too hard. For that reason he was easy to cheer for and quite popular with the fans in Seattle. A change of scenery to a more hitter friendly ballpark will help. 

Kelenic was being shopped last winter as well and I was hoping the Brewers could find a way to flip Wong for him, but we ended up with Winker instead. I assume we would have needed to take one of these crappy contracts to get him and we don't have the payroll flexibility that the Braves do. Plus we don't need outfielders anymore. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

What a dud this year's MLB offseason has been so far outside of Milwaukee.  Is everyone going to sit on their hands at the Winter Meetings until they get to the airport tomorrow night/thursday morning before anything significant happens?

Big ol' yawner at this point

[wibadgers23]

41 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

What a dud this year's MLB offseason has been so far outside of Milwaukee.  Is everyone going to sit on their hands at the Winter Meetings until they get to the airport tomorrow night/thursday morning before anything significant happens?

Big ol' yawner at this point

This is typically how the MLB offseason goes. It’s painfully slow! It’s not like the NBA where everything happens in about two weeks.

[owbc]

1 hour ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

What a dud this year's MLB offseason has been so far outside of Milwaukee.  Is everyone going to sit on their hands at the Winter Meetings until they get to the airport tomorrow night/thursday morning before anything significant happens?

Big ol' yawner at this point

Once Ohtani signs the floodgates will open. 

[markedman5]

Brewers move up to 17 in draft

cards drop to 7

Reds jump all the way to 2

[Brewcrew82]

1 minute ago, markedman5 said:

Brewers move up to 17 in draft

cards drop to 7

Reds jump all the way to 2

Life is good. Except for the Reds getting the #2 pick. That will be a nice coup for them to add onto their young core. 

Cubs only 3 picks ahead of us, despite falling spectacularly out of the playoff race in September. We pick ahead of the Mets because they exceeded the luxury tax. Lol Greg. Lol Cohen and DS. 

[markedman5]

 

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, markedman5 said:

 

Bring Maldy home to backup Contreras until Quero is ready.

[Jastro]

Asking price for Cease as of right now...

 

[wibadgers23]

36 minutes ago, Jastro said:

Asking price for Cease as of right now...

 

So that would be the Reds # 2, 6, 9, and 11th ranked prospects for two years of Cease. Would love to know what Arnold is asking for Burnes.

[Sixtolezcano]

The GM Winter Meetings must be the most overrated event on the MLB calendar.

[Sixtolezcano]

23 hours ago, owbc said:

Once Ohtani signs the floodgates will open. 

I seriously doubt it.

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

The GM Winter Meetings must be the most overrated event on the MLB calendar.

Now that there's this fancy new thing called Zoom there isn't really anything special about meeting in person

[wibadgers23]

2 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

The GM Winter Meetings must be the most overrated event on the MLB calendar.

Yeah I wonder how much MLB spent to send all of these GM’s and executives to Nashville to do something that could have been done over the phone or Zoom.

[Sixtolezcano]

25 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Now that there's this fancy new thing called Zoom there isn't really anything special about meeting in person

Maybe even a phone or e-mail would work, too.

[brewcrewdue80]

The overseas players to sign really hinder the moves in a to early to make a move without having those 2-4 players off the market.  They need to push the winter meetings a month later after the New Year so those postings, and deals are complete. Too successful lately to not see the result before dealing with what MLB teams already offer.