Hot Stove Baseball 2019

This seems like as good a place as any to go ahead and comment on MLB’s off season.  Unlike last year, there was plenty of action this winter.  Thank goodness the Players’ Union won’t have to strike now because free agent contracts weren’t large enough and weren’t handed out quickly enough.  I almost couldn’t enjoy last season because of that.    

Annoyingly, I did miss all of the Winter Meetings coverage on the MLB Network.  I always like watching some of that.  Unfortunately, I was too wrapped up to tune in (because I watching Crisis on Infinite Earths).  After last season, the baseball media was talking about doing away with the owners’ meeting because nothing had happened there for a couple of years. 

I felt the biggest story and question mark in the offseason was actually involving the minor leagues.  The latest issue of Baseball America has two articles on it.  The MLB wants to contract the number of minor league teams in 2021.  Their agreement with the MiLB is in some jeopardy.  Honestly, I didn’t realize these were two totally separate organizations that only had an understanding between them to work with.     

The MLB wants to eliminate a bunch of lower-level clubs and a few Double-A ones.  They feel they don’t really need that many minor league players.  Perhaps everyone’s sabermetrics on prospects are good enough that they can tell who has a legit chance of making the big leagues without seeing them in a season of Short Season A-ball.  In any case, MiLB owns the clubs, but the MLB pays the players.  If they don’t want them, then that’s their prerogative.

That said, eliminating teams is going to ruin local support for baseball and degrade the sport in general.  MiLB owners thought they had affiliated clubs to promote.  If an outside entity can suddenly end them, it makes their investment nearly whimsical.  The value of everyone’s minor league franchise just went down.  The MLB thought some of these lower clubs didn’t have good facilities, little chance for improvement, and no nearby options for relocation.  The clubs listed for elimination now have no chance of improvement.  (BA listed the Lexington Legends as team on the chopping block.  They also listed them as one of their organizations of the year.)   

This is a difficult issue.  It’s likely good for the MLB, but bad for baseball in general.  The MLB offered a bone in terms of providing funds for unaffiliated ball for some of the eliminated teams, but that would just make them more unviable without a connection to the big leagues.  There is a possibility that there will not be a continuation of the MLB/MiLB contract.  Minor leaguers would then continue to play at the MLB spring training facilities.  (Nice for the fans living in those areas.) 

What happens to the El Paso Chihuahuas and the rest of minor league baseball?  Who knows?  This is a big issue, at least for me and any other minor league fan that roots for a local team.  They’ve got a year to work this out.  Frighteningly, MiLB has involved congress.  This could go very badly.

The other big question marks that haven’t been answered to this point are a couple of potential trades that have not happened and may not.  I’m referring to the rumors about the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado and the Indians’ Francisco Lindor.  Both players are under contract for now, but the whispers have been loud.  The Indians probably won’t be able to keep Lindor when he becomes a free agent.  The Rockies had such a bad year that that huge extension they gave Arenado now looks like a boat anchor.

The baseball media’s purpose in enthusiastically reporting this (other than just generating news) is that they want the Dodgers to upgrade themselves with these players to get them to the World Series again.  Seriously, that’s it.  I’m not even sure the Dodgers even wanted to make a deal for either player as much as the media does.  I think Lindor will be with the Indians for now.  The question with the Rockies is: Do they have an actual good team that just had a bad year?  Or, are they a bad team with some good players? 

Just to connect the thread, I’ll “homer” out here and talk about the Rangers’ moves first.  They were rumored to want Nolan to fill that Adrian Beltre-sized hole at third base.  That’d be a great fit.  Now who do the Rangers trade for him?  That’s the question.  They could afford him and would want him for the new ballpark.  The only deal I could think of would involve Joey Gallo.  Ouch, but it’s an exchange that might help both teams. 

Gallo took some BP at the unfinished new park late in the year for some publicity.  I’d heard there was a fire there later, but didn’t get any details.  The Rangers have reworked their starting pitching rotation and now have Corey Kluber.  I think this will improve the team, but we don’t know how the park will play.  Outgoing, Nomar Mazara was traded for a minor leaguer.  I guess they gave up on him. 

The Rangers were also in on the bidding for Anthony Rendon for third base.  He ended up going to the Angels.  From this seven-year, $245M deal, we can surmise their ownership learned nothing from the Albert Pujols deal that they’re still cursed with.  Rendon was good in a contract year and in the playoffs, but those are exactly the kind of players you want to avoid overpaying for.  He can only go downhill from here. 

We kept hearing in the postseason how great Rendon was before this year, it’s just that nobody ever talked about him.  Maybe he was just living Bryce Harper’s shadow, or, more likely, he had a career year at just the right time.  Angels fans should be more excited about Shohei Ohtani being cleared to pitch this season.

Oh, alright!  The Yankees got Gerrit Cole and will win the next five World Series.  Are you all happy now!  For what they paid for him ($324M over nine years), they are expecting multiple championships.  Little wonder they beat out the Angels in the bidding.  (Maybe they learn something from the Pujols contract.) 

I think we can all figure out that the Yankees are not going to get nine years of good pitching from Cole.  To be honest, as happy as he was signing with New York, he was awfully petulant at the end of the 2019 World Series.  Not the best teammate material there.  The “best” pitcher did fail to deliver a championship for two years with the Astros, who are probably a better team than the Yankees.  I have no trouble seeing this either being a spectacular success, or the Yankees paying somebody to remove a cancer from the team.    

The Rays traded Tommy Pham to the Padres for Hunter Renfroe.  Pham was the heart of the Rays in 2019.  Teammates and fans in Tampa Bay were not happy.  Rays pitcher, Blake Snell, found out about the trade live while gaming on Twitch and had some choice words.  An MLB player is a streamer?  This is intriguing.  Who else does this? 

The Reds got Mike Moustakas from the Brewers.  Cincinnati has picked up some pitching too.  They may have a chance to win the NL Central as the other teams in the division haven’t made any winning offseason moves yet.  The Brewers have lost a bunch of players.  I wonder what their strategy is. 

Finally, a few deals that I found interesting.  Stephen Strassburg went back to the Nationals.  This makes sense.  Don’t count this team out of the playoffs in 2020.  Zack Wheeler went to the Phillies, Dellin Betances went to the Mets, but NL East is really waiting to see what the Braves do.  Dallas Keuchel went to the White Sox.  The AL Central is a very weak division and I think the Sox are making a move.  Hyun-Jin Ryu went to the Blue Jays.  Their all-legacy team featuring the sons of past Major Leaguers is still going to need some more pitching help. 

Lastly, the Giants’ big move was signing Gabe Kapler as their manager.  Two under-performing seasons in Philadelphia is more than enough experience to take over for future Hall-of-Famer, Bruce Bochy.  At least he’ll be getting some more minor league coaching experience that he didn’t get before taking the Philly job.  Look for Buster Posey to be actually managing the team.  On a related note, Madison Bumgarner went to the Diamondbacks as future mid-season trade bait to the Yankees.  Okay, we’re done here.  I’ll see you later in my preseason baseball special with any other baseball news in the meantime.