They are well past that; they are numb to it all.
Trading for Santana is bizarre. He had a league average year while make $20M, and two more years to go on that deal. I never thought the Phillies could ever unload him, yet now he’s been traded twice. Perhaps they thought they were getting the musician?
Alonso ($9m) and Gomes ($7m) were pure salary dumps. Encarnacion and Santana were basically a wash, paying $4m more for an extra year of Santana. More total dollars, but spread out more favorably for the team. Santana was better last year too, and less likely to have age-related dropoff that Edwin is going through.
Alonso was… fine, but with Santana back and Bauers being 1B/OF there wasn’t a place for him. Feels like on Chicago’s side this was a move to boost their chances of signing Machado (Yonder Alonso is his brother-in-law). Giving up a fringe prospect and $9 million for that isn’t bad, if that’s your plan.
Word is with these trades they probably aren’t going to move a pitcher now (part of that I suspect is no one offering what they want for Kluber), and will go into this year with a strategy of “the Central is garbage, so we can run out any lineup and hope the pitchers carry us through October”. Which… isn’t the worst plan if you aren’t willing to spend. But yes, as a fan it’s extremely shitty watching a playoff team get dismantled for money reasons.
In todays world trading either Bauer or Kluber would be insane short of an overwhelming offer.
I generally think that MLB teams run payrolls way under what they should be if they really cared about winning at all instead of maximizing yearly profits in the owners’ pockets. So I agree it’s infuriating as a fan to see a team like Cleveland being unwilling to maximize their window.
That said, the Central is trash and the last couple years it’s been pretty cheap to add bats at the deadline. If they actually did that it could work out.
Now on the other hand, the Cubs have absolutely no excuse for being unwilling to add any salary on. The NL Central will be crazy competitive and the idea that they can’t run a payroll as high as any other team is laughable.
Man, you ain’t wrong :(
I cannot imagine that Addison Russell will be a member of the Cubs for very much longer.
I mean that little shit is to blame* for the Cubs flame out down the stretch, but do I want to know?
*i mean it’s at least partially true, and I don’t feel the slightest bit bad attributing him full and complete cause.
Edit: yeah, not reading it. More news of him being an abusive jackass. May he get banned by the league.
Sounds like Andrew Miller to the Cardinals will be a done deal by tomorrow.
Yadi will need to practice blocking Miller’s arm in the dirt when it flies off his shoulder.
Pretty sure Yadi at seventy three years old has plenty of experience with everything baseball can throw at him.
Clears about $25m in salary for the Dodgers. Guess where Bryce Harper is going to end up???
(Per Passan, that puts the Dodgers at $180m in payroll. Harper will take them well into luxury tax land. So, they have that decision to make.)
Dodgers expected to immediately DFA Bailey and eat the $28m owed to him.
So…Homer Bailey is a free agent.
Do they not take the cap hit if they DFA him?
I wondered too. It looks like they take the cap hit, but Bailey had a $25m mutual club option for 2020 with a $5m buyout. So the Dodgers eat $23m for this season and the $5m buyout on that option.
And yes, those are actual contract numbers for Homer effing Bailey. Good lord, that contract.
Best first name ever for a pitcher.
It’s a shame Homer Bailey and Bob Walk were in different generations. Would love to see them on the same pitching staff.
Anyway, Homer can go back to covering his home with plastic sheets and listening to Huey Lewis.
Homer pitched the only no-hitter I have personally witnessed. He gets points in my book for that.
The number-of-starting-pitchers-who-have-thrown-100mph-in-the-8th-inning stat is funny.
Just take baseball away from Florida. It’s not like they’re using it.