2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[The Buscher]

I’d be stunned if Lincecum made it.  He was absolutely money for a 4 year stretch from 2008-11, but there’s still a good amount of voters that just really struggle to look beyond the total stat line.  They’d see a 3.74 career ERA in a short career and nope out pretty quickly.

Frankly with how crowded the ballot is, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s 5%’d off the ballot.

[gunnar hendershow]

If Johan fell off the ballot there's no way Lincecum makes it.

I'm more excited about the Early Baseball Era and especially Golden Days Era ballots. Some wrongs can be righted. Especially with Minnie Minoso.

[The Buscher]

The Mets, Mariners, and Blue Jays are all said to have made big offers to Gausman and his final contract will likely wind up being a 5-year deal.

Mets have also talked to Scherzer, a guy the Wilpons wouldn’t have even bothered entertaining.  But it sounds like he’s still an extreme long shot.  There’s no indication he wants to go back to the east coast, especially not NYC.  I’d imagine the only chance of landing him is blowing Bauer’s contract from last year out of the water and offering such a ridiculously high AAV that his family will disown him if he doesn’t sign.

[Gabriel]

Gausman had interest in Toronto last off-season, but didn't like the uncertainty of leaving San Francisco during the pandemic. I don't think he has those same reservations this year, but I'd still be surprised to see him land in Toronto. Not because he doesn't have interest, as he's frequently stated how much he loves playing there... but we're still in a world where it's entirely possible shit gets worse and the Jays wind up back in the States for a bit. Especially with those pesky aliens from Omicron Persei 8 having just sent us a new variant of the virus.

[The Buscher]

Marcus Semien to the Rangers.  7 years, $175 million.

[gunnar hendershow]

5 hours ago, Gabriel said:

Gausman had interest in Toronto last off-season, but didn't like the uncertainty of leaving San Francisco during the pandemic. I don't think he has those same reservations this year, but I'd still be surprised to see him land in Toronto. Not because he doesn't have interest, as he's frequently stated how much he loves playing there... but we're still in a world where it's entirely possible shit gets worse and the Jays wind up back in the States for a bit. Especially with those pesky aliens from Omicron Persei 8 having just sent us a new variant of the virus.

Jays just signed Gausman.

[Your Mom]

 

[The Buscher]

If the Mets don’t get Scherzer (and I firmly believe the Mets are just being used to jack up the price for the Dodgers ala Bauer), losing out on Gausman is gonna hurt big time.

Happy with Friday’s moves but they’ll ultimately mean nothing if they don’t bring in two starters.  The pitching on this team was a disaster in 2021.

[The Buscher]

Around 10:30/11 PM a load of writers, both from the local beat as well as National (Rosenthal, Morosi) etc said that Scherzer to the Mets was “serious momentum”, “close to the finish line” etc...usually when this happens you hear within an hour that the deal is done for real.  So the Mets fans all went apeshit with excitement as you’d expect, every Mets blog site crashed, Twitter flooded etc

By midnight I had to go to bed, and not hearing anything was done I had a bad feeling.  Now waking up this morning to no news is an even worse sign.  Still firmly believe the Mets are being played.

The writers clearly had a field day.  Lucy yanking the football away from them is one of their favorite things.

[gunnar hendershow]

The offer from the Mets is patently absurd for a 37 year old pitcher and I am very skeptical that the other teams meet it. The thing is, he clearly doesn't want to go to NY. 

[The Buscher]

The Mets' offer also indicates that they aren't just looking to blow the luxury tax the next two years but probably the next four.  Keep in mind deGrom, if he is healthy, can opt out next year and if they end up paying Max $40+ million a year, they're going to have to do the same for deGrom.

Wouldn't be shocked if the owners try really hard to push for non-financial penalties for going over the CBT after a certain number of years, but the union will fight that.  If the penalties are financial only, it'll never scare Cohen off...he probably makes more in two months than the entire cost of the penalties.

[GhostMachine]

2 hours ago, damshow said:

The offer from the Mets is patently absurd for a 37 year old pitcher and I am very skeptical that the other teams meet it. The thing is, he clearly doesn't want to go to NY. 

I suspect its not so much that its NY that is the problem. Its that its the Mets. 

[The Buscher]

At this point I imagine negotiations have broken down into this:

 

[gunnar hendershow]

It's 3 years/$129 million on the table from the Mets.

I honestly don't think Dodgers or Angels match that total.

[The Buscher]

Meanwhile, while all this has gone down...Stroman has publicly dragged the Mets for being in on Scherzer, Gausman, Gray etc while largely viewing him as a fallback option despite his success last year.  I get the frustration, but he then liked a bunch of tweets implying that it's race related.

He then turned around a liked a tweet which called Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo an ethnic slur, and when another writer screenshotted it and called him out on it, he accused the writer of Photoshopping it. 

[GhostMachine]

52 minutes ago, damshow said:

It's 3 years/$129 million on the table from the Mets.

I honestly don't think Dodgers or Angels match that total.

Sometimes its not about the money as much as it is about whether the team is crap or not.

[gunnar hendershow]

Looks like Mad Max is indeed headed to the Mets.

[The Buscher]

 

[DYSI]

Oof that's a lot of money on an older pitcher, but I think the Mets wanted this anyway they could. Mad Max and DeGrom on paper should be insane. Good for the Mets!

[The Buscher]

Reminder that Steve Cohen spent more than Max Scherzer's contract on this fucking thing: