Even though Thanksgiving dominated Week 3 of the 2015-2016 MLB offseason, there was still plenty of buzz surrounding stars like David Price and Jose Fernandez.
When it comes to the chase for Price, a heavyweight has emerged from the American League East. Meanwhile, some clarity has been provided on the future of Fernandez in South Beach.
As you enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers, here’s a look at all the biggest questions and answers from the week that was.
Historically, the real fun of the MLB offseason doesn’t begin until the winter meetings.
Unfortunately, that gathering of baseball’s top minds and decision-makers doesn’t convene until Dec. 6 in Nashville, Tennessee. As we sit around waiting, there’s no harm in taking a look at 10 impact moves that make so much sense that they should have already been made.
From a megadeal for Zack Greinke to trades involving a few of the game’s top closers, pitchers dominate the list that follows. However, there’s also room for a couple of dynamic outfielders who should be on the move sooner rather than later.
A big part of assessing the long list of free agents each year is identifying the players who stand a good chance of bouncing back. In the past, we’ve seen plenty of “risky” free agents go on to successfully prove their worth.
In 2014, the two Comeback Player of the Year Award winners—Casey McGehee and Chris Young—were originally considered somewhat risky signings prior to that season. But front-office executives in Miami and Seattle saw something in their potential and decided to take a chance.
Players on this list are low-cost signings who can potentially bring a high reward. While a lot of them have struggled in certain facets of the game recently, they still have something to offer teams with needs.
While assessing players, we’ll look at what exactly makes them a risky signing as well as which team would benefit most from taking a chance and seeing what they have to offer.
Every MLB teams has a best-case scenario on how their offseason could play out in terms of what specific players they add to address their various areas of need.
However, with 29 other teams vying for the services of the same crop of free agents, things don’t always go according to plan, and teams are often forced to move on to Plan B or Plan C to address a particular need.
So with that in mind, what follows is a look at the best fallback options at each position in this year’s free-agent class.
For each position, the top tier of available players was established, and then the best of the remaining players at the position were highlighted.
The MLB winter meetings are just two weeks away, and the competitive landscape of free agency will likely make its biggest plays this offseason.
Executives of all 30 teams will convene in Nashville, where the hot stove will reach its peak.
The offseason has already featured a bevy of trades and signings; however, many of the blue-chip free agents—notably the slew of starting pitchers—are still on the market.
Here is the latest buzz on a few key pitchers rumored to possibly suit up in a different uniform than the year prior.
Since the Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs, Zack Greinke has opted out of a $71 million guaranteed deal and finished runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award despite hurling the lowest ERA (1.66) in two decades.
But it appears Greinke’s fortunes may turn around soon. At 32, he’s expected to successfully command an even richer deal than the $23.6 million salary he was earning with the Dodgers—and perhaps with the biggest rivals to the boys in blue.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports the San Francisco Giants may have stolen momentum from the incumbent Dodgers as favorites to land Greinke.
The Giants are in the market for a starting pitcher this offseason, perhaps two, and have the wallet to pursue an asset as expensive as Greinke. And falling short last winter in the Jon Lester sweepstakes showed, as their rotation didn’t have much to lean on past superstar Madison Bumgarner.
Signing Greinke—and perhaps another above-par starter—would not only give the Giants the best rotation in the NL West, but also steal that moniker away from the reigning three-time division champion Dodgers.
John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle discussed the immediate impact Greinke could make in shifting the competitive balance of the entire division:
One move. It’s all the Giants need to make. It virtually could assure a division title so long as other players have their normal years. It would solidify the roster. It would shift the balance of power in the National League West.
It would be signing Zack Greinke.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy named Greinke the NL starter at last year’s All-Star Game, and Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area quipped the pair’s relationship should steer in San Francisco’s favor:
The Dodgers expected to be in this position, as the veteran righty had long been expected to opt out of his deal. Those speculations were all but guaranteed when Greinke was in the midst of a Cy Young-worthy campaign last summer.
The Dodgers will still make a hard run at Greinke, who said after the season he’d like to remain in L.A. But their rivals up the Pacific Coast Highway may soar the price tag.
Bracing for Greinke’s possible departure, the Dodgers are also looking at another hard-hurling righty, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today:
If Greinke and David Price are the A-listers of this class, Jordan Zimmermann is a B to B-plus candidate.
He saw some falloff in 2015—his ERA, WHIP and FIP were all worse than the year prior—but he eclipsed 200 innings for the second time in three years (with a 199.2 inning year sandwiched in between), leaving his 2009 Tommy John surgery in the distant rearview.
Zimmermann turns 30 next season, so he’s a tad younger than the other high-profile pitchers on the market. But if the Dodgers sign him they’ll lose their highest draft pick because he turned down a qualifying offer from the Nationals.
The Dodgers may be willing to take that chance—particularly if Greinke jets—as they are very much in win-now mode, as World Series favorites at some point in each of the last three offseasons.
They’ll be making their 2016 run with Dave Roberts as the new manager, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Dylan Hernandez, Bill Plaschke and Bill Shaikin, so a clubhouse favorite such as Zimmermann certainly boosts their winning culture.
The Chicago Cubs, a fellow NL pennant-chaser, have also emerged in the Zimmermann sweepstakes, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported the Cubs are the believed favorites to land Price, who is expected $200 million or more, but are actively shopping elsewhere—reaching out to former Cub Jeff Samardzija, per Phil Rogers of MLB.com, among others—should their Price pursuit fall short.
As Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago noted, Zimmermann would cost about half of Price’s tag and leave the Cubs more financial stability to shop for other pieces.
Zimmermann might not have finished as a top-of-the-rotation fixture as he did a year ago, but his market appears far more fluid than that of a Johnny Cueto, who seems to be drawing crickets.
Zimmermann is probably also reassured that his suitors were playoff teams a year ago after being immersed in a Nationals collapse despite being unanimous preseason World Series favorites.
Much has been speculated that 16-year veteran Mark Buehrle will retire this winter. He’ll be 37 before Opening Day and his contract is up with the Toronto Blue Jays after a nice few runs that culminated with an AL East title last year.
A reunion with the Chicago White Sox, where Buehrle spent his first 12 seasons, seems highly unlikely.
As Scott Merkin of MLB.com wrote, the South Siders already have a slew of lefties in their current rotation: “A healthy Buehrle certainly would help any team in regard to the innings and consistent quality starts he’s been able to log for the past 15 seasons, but I don’t envision the White Sox going with five southpaws in their rotation.”
The Blue Jays, who re-signed Marco Estrada to a two-year, $26 million deal earlier this month, aren’t expected to bring back Buehrle, who was 1.1 frames shy of eclipsing the 200 innings mark for the 15th straight season.
He could help a contender on a one-year deal and make one final hoorah. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, 10 teams are interested in the seemingly ageless lefty, who is a five-time All-Star with a no-hitter and perfect game.
Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun reported, however, that only one team will pique Buehrle’s interest: his hometown St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals are coming off a 100-win season and third straight NL Central title amid the year-round attrition dealt to their beleaguered rotation.
The Redbirds have reliable pieces in Michael Wacha, Lance Lynn and Jaime Garcia, but ace Adam Wainwright will be coming off an Achilles injury and John Lackey may sign elsewhere after denying a $15.8 million qualifying offer.
Buehrle’s upstanding presence would blend swimmingly in the Cardinals’ all-business clubhouse, and he could fill the veteran void should Lackey leave.
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From Zack Greinke to Aroldis Chapman, both the MLB free-agent market and the trade block are stocked with impact arms.
For now, no one knows just where exactly those stars will end up. However, after considering team needs for 2016 and taking into account all the latest buzz, here are some surprise destinations that make sense as potential landing spots.
The list that follows includes the top five free agents from Bleacher Report’s big board and the two most-prominent names on the trade front. Pitchers dominate the list, but there’s also room for a few big hitters who should make a big difference for their new employers in 2016.
We spend a lot of time early in the free-agent season discussing good fits and where players would like to go. And then it still almost always comes down to which team offers the most money.
It probably will with Johnny Cueto, too, but in his case, maybe it shouldn’t. Well, maybe it should, if the team that offers the most money is the San Francisco Giants.
Cueto and the Giants feel like the ultimate good fit, especially from the pitcher’s standpoint. And if there’s any player on this winter’s free-agent market who should be shopping for the best fit, it’s Johnny Cueto.
The Giants may well favor Zack Greinke, and as I wrote a couple of weeks back, he would be a great fit for them. Cueto wouldn’t be a bad second choice for them—and they would be a great first choice for him.
With their pitcher-friendly ballpark and their pitcher-friendly combo of manager Bruce Bochy and Dave Righetti, the Giants would be a nice, comfortable choice for any pitcher. But if there’s one pitcher this winter who seems to thrive on comfort, it’s Cueto.
Remember in the World Series, when the Kansas City Royals arranged their rotation with the main goal of making sure Cueto would only pitch at home? The Royals said publicly they believed Cueto could pitch anywhere but acknowledged privately they had an ultra-sensitive ace who responds best in an environment where he’s comfortable.
Sure enough, Cueto pitched like a no-doubt ace twice during October, both times in crucial games—both times in his Kauffman Stadium comfort zone. He beat the Houston Astros there in Game 5 of the division series and was even better in his World Series Game 2 complete-game win over the New York Mets.
The Royals traded for Cueto as a rental ace, and those two wins justified the price they paid. They’ll let him move on now, fine for him because while Kauffman Stadium was a great place for him to pitch, the American League as a whole wasn’t.
So now he’s a free agent, in a market heavy on starting pitchers but featuring just two true aces in David Price and Zack Greinke. Or maybe it’s three aces, if you can count Cueto.
You can count him, if he’s the guy we all saw in the World Series. You can count him, if he’s the guy whose National League ERA since the start of the 2011 season is 2.51, second to Clayton Kershaw (2.11) and better than Zack Greinke (2.75) and Madison Bumgarner (3.05), among others.
Remember, Cueto made half of those starts in homer-friendly Great American Ball Park, where he’s the only guy to survive at least 10 career starts with an ERA under 3.00.
Imagine what he could do at AT&T Park. Or instead of imagining, check out Cueto‘s three career starts in San Francisco, where he pitched 21.1 innings and allowed just four earned runs (a 1.69 ERA) and 14 hits.
We’ve gotten a long way into this without mentioning Cueto‘s health, not because it’s not an issue, but simply because we don’t really know. His agent made the point that he looked plenty healthy in that World Series win over the Mets, but the Giants or any other interested team will want assurances from their own medical staff before proceeding.
The whispers about his elbow have been around for months and gained steam when the Cincinnati Reds pushed back a couple of Cueto‘s starts early in the season. He was still able to top 200 innings for the third time in four years and was able to make all his starts in October without any hint of health issues.
Cueto‘s October included those two outstanding starts against the Astros and Mets, but also that total clunker in Game 3 of the ALCS in Toronto. He seemed overly concerned about possible sign-stealing, just as he had seemed to get overly rattled by the sing-song “Cue-to! Cue-to!” chants during the 2013 National League Wild Card Game in Pittsburgh.
If you’re shopping for an ace who will command the type of money Cueto will likely get (Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com predicted a six-year, $144 million contract), maybe you want a guy who doesn’t get rattled. But every free agent comes with warts. Price is going to get more money than any free-agent pitcher on the market, and he has never won a postseason start.
Cueto had two huge wins just last month. Put him in his comfort zone, and he can pitch like a true ace.
Put him with the Giants in AT&T Park, and he can earn that title.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.
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From Zack Greinke to David Price, the MLB free-agent market is flooded with impact starters.
That’s great news for big league general managers because revamping the rotation is the most pressing need for an array of teams across the league.
There’s also an assortment of squads whose top offseason objective is to land that late-inning ace. As it so happens, there’s plenty of prominent relievers up for grabs on the trade block.
While many of the clubs on this list will be focused on adding to their rosters, there’s also room for more than a few rebuilding teams like the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies who need to make big subtractions in the hopes of brightening their future.
Attempting to replace top MLB free agents like Zack Greinke and David Price is not an enviable task. For teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, doing just that is on the docket this winter.
What follows are predictions for how the Dodgers, Blue Jays and others will account for the potential loss of impact free agents like Greinke and Price. The list includes the top 15 free agents on this offseason’s market, as ranked on the Bleacher Report big board.
Some teams will use the departure of a star free agent as a chance to promote from within. Others squads will be forced to dip into the trade and free-agent fronts to make up for those losses. And some teams, like the Dodgers, might not have any choice but to take out their checkbooks and spend.
A stock-piled offseason of free agents is about to get into full swing in Major League Baseball with some of the game’s top pitchers and position players ready to narrow down their suitors and sign offers for their futures.
The Kansas City Royals ran away with the 2015 World Series, but it is no secret that a lot of organizations are right there in terms of contending for the title. Some are just a piece or two away from taking the next step, and that should be reflected in some aggressive plays for the top available free agents.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at three notable free agents and where we expect them to land.
David Price
A staple of a franchise just a few years ago, star pitcher David Price has suddenly shifted to a playoff mercenary in the last couple of years. But after coming up short in his World Series quest as a rental pitcher once again, he’s likely aiming for a more permanent home in which to chase rings.
Entering the free-agent market, Price has apparently told about six teams that he’d be willing to join their pitching staff. Peter Gammons reports that list includes the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Price has been expectedly quiet in the recent days and weeks as he fields interest from teams, but one such team that could rise above the rest is the Cubs. Their sudden rise to prominence should carry extra weight for Price, who expressed interest in them way back before he was even traded from the Tampa Bay Rays, as he made the following comments to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Being a part of something special is also something you want to do. You can take that to a first-place team. You could take that all the way to a last-place team like the Cubs. With the talent they have coming up they could be a very special team in a few years as well. That would probably be the coolest city to win a championship in. They haven’t done it in I’m not sure how long. To do that there that would be the coolest city to win a championship in right now.
Price has jumped from Detroit to Toronto in the hopes of contributing to a championship team but has fallen short. Despite his lowly postseason record, he showed vast improvements there in 2015, putting together some fantastic outings.
You can just tell by the way he talked about Chicago—which came when it was a last-place team, mind you—that winning there would be special for him. After seeing the Cubs’ run to the National League Championship Series that fell short largely due to a lack of deep pitching, Price can envision exactly where he’d fit.
Prediction: Price signs with Chicago Cubs
Ben Zobrist
The three or four months that Ben Zobrist spent in Kansas City with the Royals were one of the most successful half-season stints with a new team in MLB history.
He settled into the Royals lineup seamlessly, put up big numbers and made huge contributions to the Royals’ first World Series title in 30 years. Now, he can go use that spotlight to put his name on a big-money deal with another offense-thirsty contender.
The New York Mets are one team chasing him, as New York Post‘s Dan Martin and Ken Davidoff reported, but the Yankees across the city aren’t keen on doing the same due to the big contract he’d command. If the deep-pocketed Yanks aren’t intent on ponying up, it’s hard to think the Mets—who will soon have to throw hundreds of millions at their young pitchers—will be able to, as Adam Rubin of ESPN.com noted:
Where does that leave the Zobrist sweepstakes? Right in the hands of two more NL powers, as the Giants and Cubs are both interested, as reported by Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com.
Chicago would be an ideal fit, as Zobrist could reunite with manager Joe Maddon, but the Cubs are already flush with skilled position players. Meanwhile, San Francisco is desperate to rekindle its offense and find more balance in the lineup, and it should be willing to throw a lot of cash around to do so.
Prediction: Zobrist signs with San Francisco Giants
Zack Greinke
Up until the 2015 season, the impending free agency of Zack Greinke seemed to suggest that this would be his last season in Los Angeles with the Dodgers.
Then, he went out and posted one of the most dominant seasons on the mound in recent memory. Suddenly, it’s not far-fetched for fans to suggest he may be even more valuable than his counterpart, Clayton Kershaw—at least in the short term.
While Greinke is getting a boatload of interest, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal still sees a return to L.A. as the most likely scenario: “We learned the last time Greinke was on the market that he prefers the National League, and the best guess is that he will re-sign with the Dodgers, unless the Giants somehow bid higher.”
Most of the teams that are willing to shell out a pretty penny for pitching hail from the American League, but Greinke apparently isn’t a big fan of making that switch. There’s always the chance that the Dodgers could be outbid, but after reassessing what Greinke has done for them on the mound in the last several years, they’ll spend much more than initially expected to keep their ace in tow.
Prediction: Greinke re-signs with Los Angeles Dodgers
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