MLB 2020/2021 Off-Season Thread

[gunnar hendershow]

2020 had to take one more Hall of Famer from us. Phil Niekro has passed away.

[GhostMachine]

One of, if not the, best knuckleball pitchers of all time. 

R.I.P.

[The Buscher]

Padres on the verge of acquiring Blake Snell. Rays would get Luis Patino, Francisco Mejia, Cole Wilcox, and Blake Hunt.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yup, sounds like it's done. Glad to see Snell out of the AL East. Great grab for the Padres. They're so much fun to watch.

[The Buscher]

Not that the Rays have much of a fanbase but I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be to root for them.  Stupidly pull your ace out of the game early, lose the World Series, and now because they can’t afford to keep anyone who might cost any money, time to trade him away.

It’a just a perpetual rebuild for them.  At least the Marlins got to win a title before a couple of their blow ups.

[gunnar hendershow]

You get what you sign up for with the Rays. Their owners want to be a lot cheaper than they rightfully have to be so this stuff happens all the time with them. They've hired good front office people who turn the roster over quickly, but as a fan it's gotta just be so uninspiring to see an entirely new cast of guys after 2-3 seasons.

[Meacon Keaton]

It's probably a good reason why they haven't built a fanbase after all this time. I always hear people ask why a team that's consistently good never has more than 25% of their stadium filled on any given day. I'd imagine it has to come down to never keeping anyone around.

They've been a franchise for 20-years. Who is the player they had play for them the longest? Zobrist?

Edit: Zobrist was with them nine years. 3 years he was sent up and down and then those six full seasons of team control before they let him leave as a free agent. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Meanwhile the Reds are sorta blowing up the team they never actually built to be contenders. Sad state for a lot of the league when teams have minimal interest in winning titles when cycling through bad seasons to revive interest with one or two decent to good ones is profitable enough.

[Meacon Keaton]

On the bright side, Snell no longer has to play with that “slapdick prospect” and rejoins his buddy, Tommy Pham.

[Lowerdeck]

8 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

It's probably a good reason why they haven't built a fanbase after all this time. I always hear people ask why a team that's consistently good never has more than 25% of their stadium filled on any given day. I'd imagine it has to come down to never keeping anyone around.

They've been a franchise for 20-years. Who is the player they had play for them the longest? Zobrist?

 

I remember them trying to blame the fact that the Trop is a dump and out of the way in St Pete.  (Ignoring the fact Pinellas County has almost a million people on its own.)  They want to build a stadium in the Ybor City part of Tampa, but I doubt that will really help much.  If people really cared about the Rays, they would go to games anyway.

[The Buscher]

And even after getting Snell the Padres aren’t done, as they’re deep in talks with the Cubs to acquire Yu Darvish.

What a 1-2 punch that would give them.

[gunnar hendershow]

5 hours ago, Lowerdeck said:

 

I remember them trying to blame the fact that the Trop is a dump and out of the way in St Pete.  (Ignoring the fact Pinellas County has almost a million people on its own.)  They want to build a stadium in the Ybor City part of Tampa, but I doubt that will really help much.  If people really cared about the Rays, they would go to games anyway.

The stadium excuse is sorta valid since baseball attendance is so much about being centralized. But not enough of an excuse to justify struggling to sell tickets to a team that's regularly good. If they sucked every year it's fair to say they'd draw a few thousand more per game by being centralized.

Come 2028 though the team will either be playing in downtown Tampa or another city entirely. We'll start to really figure out what's going on over the next 2-3 years.

[Meacon Keaton]

How much longer does Darvish have on his contract? Because 2022 would be Snell, Clevinger, and potentially Darvish. 

[gunnar hendershow]

14 minutes ago, Meacon Keaton said:

How much longer does Darvish have on his contract? Because 2022 would be Snell, Clevinger, and potentially Darvish. 

Under contract through 2023.

[The Buscher]

Star KBO shortstop Ha-Seung Kim also going to the Padres.

[Meacon Keaton]

They comin' for them Dodgah's. 

[GhostMachine]

The Dodgers should go after Trevor Bauer. 

 

[Maxx]

10 hours ago, Buschie Lee said:

And even after getting Snell the Padres aren’t done, as they’re deep in talks with the Cubs to acquire Yu Darvish.

What a 1-2 punch that would give them.

They’ve also got Paddack and Clevinger, that’s a strong rotation.

[Meacon Keaton]

And Mackenzie Gore is one of the highest rated pitching prospects in the league, and is expected to debut at some point in 2021.

[The Buscher]

Barring a ton of major injuries, Dodgers/Padres will be a really fun divisional battle and both are locks for the playoffs even without continued expansion.

If this was the one wild card era it’d be already into “win the division or bust” territory for the East/Central.