MLB 2020/2021 Off-Season Thread

[GhostMachine]

Along with Dolan, who owns the Knicks, I'd be hard pressed to think of any team owners who are hated more by their own fans. And deservedly so.

Unless he's traded or released (fat chance), I expect deGrom will set the record for fastest departure from a team once his contract is over. 

Much like they have the Muta scale for blood loss in wrestling, they should have a Mets scale for suckage in sports.

Edited August 28, 2020 by GhostMachine
left out a word

[The Buscher]

This would have been Jake’s final year of team control had he not agreed to his extension last year.

His extension was five years, $137.5 million.  But he signed it a year early so really only runs three more seasons after this.

In a weak pitching market you can say he likely would’ve exceeded the total dollar value on a contract from another team, don’t think his age (32) would scare many teams off as his velocity has only gone up lately.

But with the pandemic I just don’t see there being a whole lot of big spenders so it’s possible he wouldn’t have gotten as much as he would have in a normal season.

[gunnar hendershow]

DeGrom will hit free agency after his age 35 season which is a not great time to do so as a pitcher. I think the fact he was already on the wrong side of 30 when he signed his extension meant he accepted he'd make a hundred million less than he would have if he was only a year or two younger. Shame for him it works out that way, but he's still set for life.

What happens when this deal ends is up in the air because you never know what a pitcher will look like 3 years down the line. But the Mets will have new ownership in place by then and may be reckless spenders (Cohen) or just another boring team pretending they're poor (J-Rod).

[The Buscher]

Yeah deGrom has a player option tacked on as well but if he’s still effective when his deal his up, a Cohen ownership won’t let him walk.  Won’t even matter if they overpay since he has enough money to absorb any/all sunk costs and cut the losses when it’s time to move on from somebody underperforming.

[The Buscher]

Cohen has reportedly won the Mets bidding and is now back in exclusive negotiations.

[The Buscher]

Mets win with a 7th inning walkoff home run against the Yankees as the home team in Yankee Stadium. Just as we all drew it up in February.

[GhostMachine]

Any time the Yankees lose, an angel gets its wings. Any time the Yankees lose to the Mets, God goes WTF?! and a hundred angels get their wings.

[gunnar hendershow]

8 hours ago, B-li Manning said:

Cohen has reportedly won the Mets bidding and is now back in exclusive negotiations.

I looked it up and he is at least twice as rich as the next wealthiest owner. 5 times as rich as the Steinbrenners.

[Meacon Keaton]

And the Yanks win today on a walk-off wild pitch by former Yankee Dellin Bettances. Weird season.

[Meacon Keaton]

Deivi Garcia’s debut: 6 IP 6 k’s 4 hits 0 walks 0 ER

[The Buscher]

On 8/29/2020 at 6:51 AM, damsher hatfield said:

I looked it up and he is at least twice as rich as the next wealthiest owner. 5 times as rich as the Steinbrenners.

It's sounding like the concerns about this will not prevent owners from approving him.  While it's very possible that some owners aren't thrilled at the prospect of Cohen going crazy with spending and making everyone else look bad for suppressing salaries, an owner being deemed "too wealthy" to own a baseball team doesn't help with him.

Setting a hard cap on wealth for ownership narrows the list of people/groups to those who have enough money to buy a franchise with 10 figure net worth. Blocking Steve Cohen from buying the Mets would indirectly make it harder for any franchise owners to sell their teams down the road. If the owners are really that worried about Cohen coming in and spending like mad there's an upcoming CBA where they can make tightening up the salary cap penalties a priority. At the end of the day I really don't think that the other ownership groups are that concerned by the possibility that another NYC market team is potentially going to end up a top-5 payroll spender, especially because a thriving large-market team is a tide that raises all ships via revenue sharing.

[GhostMachine]

Salary cap penalties, like the luxury tax, are a joke. 

[The Buscher]

Thing is, Cohen's got such a level of fuck you money that I really don't see increased penalties deterring him if he really does want to put the best team on the field at any cost.

Expectation is he'll be confirmed in November/December, and if it's not until after the Winter Meetings that could impact the Mets' likelihood of being in play for the top free agents.  In the pandemic world I don't know how willing the top free agents will be to wait out the market for a long time.  So as much as I'd love someone like Realmuto, not sure it'll be happening.  2021-22 class looks better anyway.

[Meacon Keaton]

Mike Clevinger has been traded to San Diego. The first of many trades today?

[Gabriel]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Meacon Moneybags said:

Mike Clevinger has been traded to San Diego. The first of many trades today?

Clevinger is a fantastic pitcher, but I'm glad he didn't land in Toronto, err Buffalo. The team has a good chemistry, and I'd be worried about adding someone who so blatantly violated covid protocols.

Lance Lynn is still available though, and if the Jays can get him for a reasonable price, they should absolutely pull the trigger on that. He's controllable and has an ERA under 2 for Texas. A rotation including Ryu, Lynn and Pearson for next season would be dynamite.

[The Buscher]

San Diego’s not screwing around, they’ve made so many moves the past few days.

Not a bad place to end up.  Quiet, safe, warm, and best tacos in the country.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Mike Minor to the A's.

[Meacon Keaton]

Mike Minor to Oakland

[GhostMachine]

2 hours ago, B-li Manning said:

Thing is, Cohen's got such a level of fuck you money that I really don't see increased penalties deterring him if he really does want to put the best team on the field at any cost.

Expectation is he'll be confirmed in November/December, and if it's not until after the Winter Meetings that could impact the Mets' likelihood of being in play for the top free agents.  In the pandemic world I don't know how willing the top free agents will be to wait out the market for a long time.  So as much as I'd love someone like Realmuto, not sure it'll be happening.  2021-22 class looks better anyway.

I've been saying for years that Baseball needs a salary cap. When Bud Selig said `parity works', I laughed my ass off. When large market teams can thumb their nose at the luxury tax as an inconvenient annoyance and small market teams can't stay competitive on a regular basis because those large market teams can sign away their best players, something is wrong.

Do you think the Yankees would have as many championships as they do, or the Braves would have dominated the NL East as much as they did if there was a cap?

i may be a Red Sox fan, but I've been a Cincinnati Reds fan even longer. And I hate seeing small market teams not do well. Once in a blue fucking moon is not good enough.

 

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Salary caps just mean players get paid less, which is the last thing we should be asking for when owners already have so much power.

The average salary ranking of the World Series champs since 1995 is 7.2, which seems fairly reasonable to me, if even a little bit low. They've added a bunch of stuff the last few years (Competitive Balance picks) that I think make up for the disparity in payroll.