In honor of Valentine’s Day, it’s only fair to celebrate one of the greatest marriages of the 2018-19 offseason. That would be the contract signed by Marco Estrada and Oakland Athletics, a one-year, $4 million deal made in late January.
When reporting for Spring Training earlier this week, Estrada said that he was “really excited about the foul territory” in Oakland this season. Acute observers pointed out that it makes sense that Estrada would enjoy Oakland’s foul territory because he routinely ranks among the leaders in pop-ups produced. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score.
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The Yankees and young starter Luis Severino made headlines on Friday when the two sides agreed to a contract extension. As Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported, it’s a four-year, $40 million deal with a fifth year club option.
Severino’s deal — which covers all four of his arbitration years and gives the Yankees control over one free agent year — is awfully similar to a contract just signed two days prior, when the Phillies and Aaron Nola agreed to a new deal. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. For a team looking to woo Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, adding the best catcher in baseball certainly doesn’t hurt.
That might have been part of the rationale behind the Phillies’ big move on Thursday when they acquired J.T. Realmuto from the Miami Marlins in a four-player trade, dealing catcher Jorge Alfaro, pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and Will Stewart and $250,000 in international slot money. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. Most would agree that there is no position in baseball harder than catcher. They’re responsible for so much — calling the game, managing base stealers, setting the defense — all while playing the most physically demanding spot on the field. Not to mention, they also have to hit. Having a successful catcher is important for a team’s success on both sides of the ball.
With the Marlins and Phillies swapping their starting catchers in a five-player trade on Thursday, every single team in the National League East division has a new catcher going into 2019. Let’s break it down. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. A quick scan of FanGraphs’ 2019 projected standings doesn’t yield a lot of surprises. The Red Sox, Yankees and Astros are all expected to be at the top of the league, and the Tigers, Marlinsand Orioles are all expected to be at the bottom.
The middle, of course, is where the interesting projections lie. Every team in the NL Central is projected between 79 and 87 wins. In the NL East, a similar situation (with the exception of the Marlins). The AL, meanwhile, seems more cut-and-dried. As of this writing, the Twins are projected to go 83-79. This would represent a modest increase over their 78-84 record from 2018. And, while 83-79 sounds unimpressive to say the least, that record would project them to finish just two games outside of the second Wild Card spot. (It is worth mentioning that the second AL Wild Card team is likely to be a team that significantly outperforms their projections.) Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. |