1605

Also with inflation, it means they are effectively paying a little less.

1606

Sounds like the Dodgers are about to close the deal on Freddie…

EDIT: And done.

1607

Things must be looking up in Yankeeville.

1608

I’m kind of surprised at how high people have the Yanks on their chances for a WS. They have barely done anything in the offseason and they are still stacked with a billion power hitters. I think they crash and burn this season, but I’m usually wrong. I also thought Zack Wheeler would get lit up in Philly and ya well… lol

1609

Not sure who you’ve been following so I’m not sure how high you are seeing their odds, fangraphs has them at about 10% chance to win the WS which feels about right to me, although obviously will change as rosters stabilize.

The new 3 game Wild Card series is a big help to them I think. They are obviously in the toughest division and having an extra playoff slot will help assure they make the playoffs to begin with, and once they make the playoffs 3 games will give them a better chance to advance given that in a lot of cases they will be the favored team.

1610

Boom:

1611

wat45

1612

Obviously love the deal for the Twins but I think that it shows how little so many owners care that he has to resort to essentially a super charged one year deal vs all the teams that could use a elite SS actually trying.

1613

This is pretty much what we expected back when that giganto TV deal gave them unlimited money.

Except for the part where they only have one WS championship*.

1614

Baseball playoffs are super random and weird for sure (though the Twins defy probability) but the Dodgers are, as the man said, a ludicrously overpowered doom brigade of talent.

But hey. Correa may be a cheating piece of shit, but at least I’m not trying to justify cheering for Trevor Bauer.

1615

Some other deals I haven’t seen mentioned:

  • Soler to the Marlins, 3/$36M, opt-outs after S1 and S2.
  • Castellanos signs with the Phils, 5/$100M, no opt-outs. Apparently Philly is observing the inaugural DH season by playing one at every position.
  • Kenley Jansen signs with Atlanta, 1/$16M
1616

The Castellanos signing is particularly notable for the Phils in that for the first time they went over the luxury tax cap, which the owner had previously resisted.

And yes, they will be historically horrible defensively, their rotation and bullpen are full of questions marks, and they will need to score 10 runs a game in order to contend.

But it’ll be fun in the little bandbox of Citizens Bank Park!

1618

Yadi just reported for his 19th and final spring training as a player.