turnin' two

I, for one, and shocked Heyman misspelled his name.

And the All Star closer, that saved nearly 60 games.

I have to say, with the abundance of similarly talented arms on the free agent market, I would be disappointed if they gave up any prospect value at all here. Not that I object to Colome as a player, just that there are a lot of pen arms on the market.

I believe he is out likely at least a couple months to begin the season.

The agent that worked Cano's deal in the first place.

What is the risk? The money that they will likely spend on another similar guy? For 1 year? That is pretty minimal risk for a MLB team.

Gosh. I actually had no idea you were petty and argumentative enough to just be talking about one scenario instead of the philosophy.

So is offering him a deal before arbitration. So is offering him a deal before the non-tender deadline. Do you not understand that? I don't get where you think there are threats.

Oh the high an mighty. Aren't you just advocating for cutting him? How is that better? They aren't threatening him. They are being honest with where they value them. If he doesn't like that offer, he gets to become a free agent.

How is offering Avi a contract, and if he rejects it, non-tendering him against the rules? How is it a manipulation?

Their situations are not even remotely similar to Garcia's. To hold them up as an example is either ignorance or dishonest. But in case you are as ignorant as you are pretending, they filed their cases because, in their view, the teams held them out of the major leagues to exploit the service time rules in the CBA, so the team can have an additional season of control over the player before the player becomes a free agent. They filed because they felt misused. They were angry. They were grasping at straws. The better question is, what happened to their filings? The answer? Nothing. That is what should be read into them. In this hypothetical situation the Sox would be saying to Avi, we will sign you for 6 million (or whatever number, just to be clear so you can't formulate another fake scenario), if you don't take it, then the organization will not tender you a contract and you will become a free agent. I don't see how those things are similar. They appear, to almost be direct opposites.

That isn't what the situation is here though. The Sox can't force Avi to sign for below what MLBTR projects his salary. They can present him with an offer and tell him if you don't sign at this level we will non tender you. That would make him a free agent. It would give him the choice on whether he wants the deal the Sox are offering or make him a free agent. Those two situations are not similar at all, unless you point is there can be contract disputes. Which, in that case, bravo to you. A hand well played. And the spirit of the agreement doesn't matter for spit. It is what is in writing that counts.

Aren't those things completely different. Like not even comparable different. It wouldn't be service time manipulation. It would be the player agreeing to a contract. And didn't their "fights" result in nothing?

Yeah. Without a doubt. It is one year. Virtually no risk. He isn't blocking anyone significant. If your last scenario plays out, then if Sox are in contention, well great. If not then they have a valuable trade piece. The narrative that he has no trade value should have been exorcised by the Martes. If Avi can preform, even at last years level and be healthy then great they can trade him and get something. If he isn't healthy or he doesn't preform, it is one year. The risk is pretty minimal. Especially if they don't sign the whale free agent. If they do, well they can always just cut him after and not be on the hook for the entire salary. Guys like Juan Lagares, Yonder Alonso , Stephen Piscotty and Jason Castro will be making about 8 million next season. Avi certainly seems to be a on par with or a better risk to me than guys like those.

He is also a guy that hit .330 in 2017 (or if you are so offended by a guy hitting the ball, he had a .380 OBP) and he then was basically hit homers at a 40 pace last season, while fighting injuries, and will be 27 for half the season next year. He has upside. The upside is that he can put those things together. I know the story behind his BA, the exact number isn't the point. The point is that somewhere in Avi Garcia, if he can somehow put it all together, is a guy that may be able to hit 30-35 homers and hit .285-.295.

I'm pretty sure it happened like 10 days ago.

They wouldn't necessarily need to sell prospects. They could also add money. I'll continue to beat the Greinke drum.

Not a free agent until after 2022.

Similar to Lopez, I think age has to be a factor here. Rodon has thrown 500 innings of 4 ERA baseball while averaging about a K/IP, before he has turned 26 years old. Before he pitched in his age 28 season, Max Scherzer had a career ERA of 3.88. Sometimes guys with the elite stuff, that Rodon has flashed, take longer to develop the command. If Rodon can harness his control on a regular basis, he could be an elite pitcher. Even if he doesn't, he is still a pretty darn serviceable pitcher. ***** Please don't convey this as me saying that Rodon is Scherzer. It is just an example of another guy with elite stuff that took some time to get it all together.

Isn't that basically what I said?

Hmm. Well good thing FIP and xFIP aren't teh actual results then. His K/9 and his BB/9 improved over the course of the season. Those numbers are what inflated his FIP and xFIP. I feel like this discussion was completely beat to death during the season.

He was 45 and 47 by BA and Pipeline. To draw that line so firmly seems to be missing the forest through the trees.

You plan your offseason on contingencies. The number 1 priority, should be (and seems to be) Harper and Machado. If you sign one of them, your offseason should proceed as you should at least be competitive next season. If you don't sign them, then you proceed differently and guys like Cruz make no sense. You shoot for the moon, and adjust your strategy if you miss.

You are disappointed by a 24 year old throwing 190 innings of a 3.91 ERA in his first full season?

Not on their own, no they certainly don't. But if the Sox can land a guy like Harper or Machado, Supplementing that signing with guys like Cruz, Moustakas, Allen and Herrera do make sense. You aren't sacrificing the future by doing that. What are you losing? Draft position? Ok that would be the case, though, the Sox have drafted in the top 10 4 out of the last 5 years and June 2019 will make 5 of 6. I think there is value in getting the young talents like Anderson, Moncada, Rodon and Lopez in to meaningful games into September.