Only eight ten-year, $100+ million contracts have been signed in the history of Major League Baseball. This offseason, it’s still quite possible that two more get done.
Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, the top two free agents on the 2018-19 market, are still unsigned. On Baseball Twitter, there are often heated discussions about the true value of both marquee free agents. I’m a believer that $300 million is completely acceptable for either of these two generational talents, and while many agree with me, some do not. In fact, one of the biggest arguments against signing Machado and Harper has been that “no ten-year deal has ever panned out.” Well, I’m here today to debunk that myth. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score.
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Contextually, Jed Lowrie to the New York Mets does not make a lot of sense.
The team is flush with infielders, having already acquired Robinson Cano and J.D. Davis this offseason, in addition to 2018 holdovers Todd Frazier, Amed Rosario and Jeff McNeil. Not to mention, the club also has Dominic Smith, an infield/corner outfield type, and Peter Alonso, seemingly the future longterm answer at first base, at Triple-A. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. Sonny Gray is one of baseball’s biggest enigmas.
In 2015, Gray was a 25-year-old American League All-Star, leading the Athletics with a 2.73 ERA across 208 innings pitched. He finished third in the Cy Young award voting, and had seemingly cemented his place among the best young pitchers in Major League Baseball. With a bright future ahead, many were excited to see Gray improve across the course of what looked to be shaping up as a brilliant career. Sure, perhaps I am overstating Gray’s performance just a tiny bit. From 2014 to 2015, he did only rank 26th out of 84 pitchers in fWAR, though he was 10th in the majors in RA9-WAR during that stretch. Nonetheless, it was still exciting to see a mid-20s pitcher putting up dominant numbers in the American League. When the Yankees agreed to sign shortstop Troy Tulowitzki late Tuesday night, many wondered whether this move would take them out of the running for Manny Machado.
Tulowitzki, for one, has the potential to be an outstanding bargain for the Yankees. In mid-December, I discussed the value that he could provide, delving deeply into the projections to figure out how just good he could potentially be in 2019. At the league-minimum salary, it’s a no-risk deal for New York and as Jeff Passan of ESPN described, it was just “too good to pass up.” And despite Passan reporting that this move did not take the Yankees out of the Machado sweepstakes, many still wondered whether that was truly the case. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. The Blue Jays shocked the baseball world earlier this week when they released star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
Tulowitzki is still owed $38 million by the Blue Jays over the next two years. (Azam Farooqui wrote a great article about the financial decision the Jays made last Wednesday, by the way.) He is coming off of a year (2017) which featured his worst offensive production of his career and continued to showcase his injury prone-ness. He didn’t even play in 2018. Needless to say, Tulowitzki’s stock is at an all-time low. Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score. |