Balta1701

Yes, apparently a lot.

No, some veteran minor league contracts come with clauses saying "If this person is not added to a big league roster by (for example) May 1, they have the right to be released from this contract". Often done for veterans who know they may or may not get roster spots, which is what all of these guys are. Apparently there's actually a clause in the last CBA that requires it for some players. Both Marisnick and Billy Hamilton would have qualified in 2022. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/04/several-veterans-on-minor-league-deals-have-sunday-opt-outs.html

Do we know if any of these guys have clauses where they have to be released if they're not called up by a certain date?

Wait didn't I literally just see him sign overseas? Who was that? Edit: it was Marwin Gonzalez, the Astros's other utility guy.

When they already moved $10 million out of the $27 million they've spent on free agents into future years, I have a pretty sensible guess as to why they haven't done that.

As with the catcher's spot...if he has a moderately serious back problem that lingers into this year, then the downside is that they aren't willing or able to replace him and they wind up with the same exact issues this year but no available free agents to replace him.

A .500 OPS wouldn’t be fine no matter how the guy was used. But, based on the fact that Cairo shut him down with a back injury, it does seem likely that he was trying to play through a back injury that should have had him shut down to rehab.

Mystery team time!

The problem is there’s no real reason to be having this conversation in January. If you were asked where Eloy will play, all you have to do is say “we think we have 4 strong outfielders right now, we will probably use the DH to keep all those bats in the lineup”. If you’re a manager. One of the things you should do is be weirdly positive about all your guys; and you should be especially careful not to accidentally run down your younger guys. Last year, LaRussa moved Leury to the top of the lineup and said he was having great at bats. But. In the same games, he dropped Vaughn to seventh. Did Vaughn hear that his manager was unhappy with him in that sequence? Change up his approach to go even more the other way? Maybe. Colas already seemed to be unhappy with being kept at A ball last year. Did Colas hear “they’re going to keep me in the minors again to start this year” with this quote? I bet it crosses his mind if he does see it. Os this the biggest deal ever? No. But it also could have been simply avoided by being a little more positive about the kid and a little less weirdly specific

You're correct, he figured out that his team could do that, so they literally ran to 2nd on every single ball fielded by Eloy. I don't believe they got any runs out of it, but they got like 3 or 4 doubles out of it.

I'm not sure why anyone would think this is a good idea with the tiniest bit of effort put in. The stats say that Benintendi has better range and is a better thower than Eloy. Video from last year shows that Eloy was worse at throwing than you thought - every ball that went to LF in one series against Cleveland was turned into a double since they just didn't stop at 1b. If you have to play eloy in the field, LF is already bad for him, in RF where he has to throw even farther would magnify that huge issue. If you have to put Eloy in the field, you'd try to hide him in LF.

Honestly, Rick Hahn gave a better answer to a similar question yesterday. "We expect Oscar Colas to be our right fielder this year and we have confidence in him in that spot". Don't need to express doubt about the kid, don't need to make it seem like you need to upgrade your outfielder even if you might still do so.

Houston's radio and TV guys had expiring contracts on December 31 and they announced new contracts yesterday.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/video/white-sox-60-leury-garcia-baserunning-miscue-costly https://www.mlb.com/video/diaz-picks-off-runner-at-third

The Dodgers have a very good shot right now at resetting themselves under the tax line the year before Ohtani hits the market, a player who they clearly feel would be an absolute goldmine for them. On top of that, they have a good amount of young talent available that they can work into their rotation this year. And they have various numbers to deal with for Trevor Bauer, who they clearly would like to be rid of. They may not run away with the division to the tune of 110 wins this year, it may be a 90 win season for them, but in terms of building their franchise and in terms of the economics, playing out the year without splurging seems smart. They did the bear minimum - they brought in pitching help (Syndergaard, Kershaw), they added JD Martinez, they added a few guys like Heyward on minor league deals. They may win a wild card this year, but they should still be competitive for that. Avoiding a 50% tax on Ohtani's contract (which is what it would be if they were still in the multi year penalties) is a lot of money.

The concept still struggles to make sense. If you’ve got a competitive team with a 2b contributing to that team, why would they give up their 2b with control for guys the White Sox aren’t sure will help them compete? If the team isn’t competitive and they have a controlled successful 2b, why would they give up their controlled player for White Sox players who haven’t established themselves in the big leagues yet? In either case, they wouldn’t. A team might give up a guy with 1-2 years before FA for those guys if they like them, or might give up a more expensive player for them, but that’s not a “controlled 2b”.

Please tell me how Rick Hahn should “go after Gleyber hard”. I do not know what you want Rick Hahn to do. Please clarify.

Just as an example, Sean Murphy was a guy the white Sox wanted who was available who was even extended with a Hahn style contract. His price in the trade turned out very affordable, but the As wanted big league ready pitching. Because of drafting, signing, and development choices, the White sox have zero of this to offer.

What does this mean? Adding in extra players that they weren’t willing to. I’ve earlier this offseason to get him? Such as?

Yes. Had it not been for the new CBA they would have been over the tax line last year.

It’s clearly a self imposed limit the White Sox are worried about, they aren’t close to hitting the luxury tax. There’s no reason to backload this in this format if you’re not trying to avoid a payroll limit this year. In my count, yea this now leaves them a little more than $11 million below last year’s total payroll, whereas a level contract would have left them about $5 million below last year’s payroll.

My guess is that moving both championship game weekend and the wild card round would be super brutal on the TV networks. But maybe if you’ve played this out in advance, you have a little known “emergency clause” in the TV contracts already negotiated? That would limit the seat-of-your-pants planning if they were smart businessmen.

Jesus they're even backloading this deal?

You really have to make me trash Seby? Come on man, I actually like the improvement he showed, he looked like a legitimate backup catcher. But...he put up a .404 BABIP last year, which isn't going to hold up if he's given more at bats (although his HR rate was a little depressed in the bigs), and I think you're not putting enough skepticism on the huge improvement in his defense observed last year and whether that could be biased because of the small number of innings he played and the issues with counting stats for catchers. UZR puts him, on a per inning basis, as one of the most effective defenders in the game last year, however DRS counts him as slightly above average, which is why B-R counts him as only a 1 WAR player rather than 1.9 for Fangraphs. For a guy who didn't play all that much, I think you're way over-weighting a number there that is difficult to give that amount of precision on. Had he played 900 innings, he would have, for example, been on pace to be again at the top of the league in passed balls and in the top 5 in wild pitches, some of which probably goes on the catcher. He had more passed balls than Reese on the year despite 200 fewer innings, Reese threw out runners at a better pace, but UZR thinks Seby was a more effective defender? I just don't buy that. I think he's a good option as a backup catcher, but no I don't think he's a starting catcher on a competitive team right now, and I don't think he's "Already an average MLB catcher".