Looking Ahead - The 2020 Offseason Thread

Kluber seems like a very interesting buy-low candidate. The Indians turned down his $18M option, so he should come much cheaper than that.

A SP, a LHH to replace Markakis, and a RHH to replace Ozuna is all the the Braves really need to be clear contenders in 2021.

Braves could technically roll out Wilson/Soroka/Anderson/Wright/Fried for the rotation but i'd imagine AA adds one of the SP options on a 1 yr deal.

Not sure there's a Donaldson or Ozuna out there. Should be able to replace Markakis pretty easily though. I think we need to bring back one of Greene/MM to have a deep pen again. But a LHH bat, SP, RH bat, and bullpen piece are the main holes this offseason. With Hand being let go for just 10 mil, bullpen pieces may be dirt cheap.
 
2021 Free-Agents:
3B - Justin Turner ($19 million)
OF - George Springer ($21 million)
OF - Michael Brantley ($16 million)
OF - Joc Pederson ($7.75 million)
OF - Mark Canha ($4.8 million)
UT - Tommy LaStella ($3.25 million)
DH - Nelson Cruz ($12 million) - Looking for a 2 year deal

SP- Trevor Bauer ($17.5 million)
SP - Masahiro Tanaka ($23 million)
SP - Jake Odorizzi ($17.8 million)
SP - James Paxton ($12.5 million)
SP - Marcus Stroman ($12 million)
SP - Jose Quintana ($10.5 million)
SP - Mike Minor ($9.5 million)
SP - Robbie Ray ($9.43 million)
SP - Kevin Gausman ($5.3 million)
SP - Taijuan Walker ($2 million)
RP - Blake Treinen ($10 million)
RP - Ken Giles ($9.6 million)
RP - Liam Hendriks ($5.3 million)
RP - Keone Kela ($3.725 million)
RP - Brandon Workman ($3.5 million)
RP - Tony Watson ($3 million)
RP - Trevor Rosenthal ($2 million)
RP - T. J. McFarland ($1.8 million)
RP - Greg Holland ($1.25 million) - Royals looking to re-sign him
RP - Jeremy Jeffress ($850K)



2021 Final Year Of Arbitration Or Team Options:
C - Wilson Ramos ($10,000,000)
C - Robinson Chirinos ($6,500,000)
C - Mike Zunino ($4,500,000)
1B/DH - Carlos Santana ($17,500,000)
1B/DH - Edwin Encarnacion ($12,000,000)
1B/DH - Daniel Murphy ($8,000,000)
1B/3B/DH - Todd Frazier ($5,750,000)
1B/DH - Eric Thames ($4,000,000)
2B - Kolten Wong ($12,500,000)
2B/OF - Dee Strange-Gordon ($13,500,000)
2B/3B - Eric Sogard ($4,500,000)
2B/3B - Howie Kendrick ($4,000,000)
LF - Bret Gardner ($10,000,000)
RF - Adam Eaton ($9,500,000)
LF/DH - Eddie Rosario ($7,500,000)

SP - Jake Arrieta ($20,000,000)
SP - Corey Kluber ($18,000,000)
SP - J. A. Happ ($17,000,000)
SP - Jon Lester ($15,000,000)
SP - Mike Leake ($15,000,000)
SP - Anibal Sanchez ($12,000,000)
SP - Chris Archer ($11,000,000)
SP - Chase Anderson ($9,250,000)
SP - Gio Gonzalez ($7,000,000)
RP - David Robertson ($12,000,000)
RP - Brad Hand ($10,000,000)
RP - Roberto Osuna ($10,000,000)
RP - Hector Neris ($7,000,000)
RP - Steve Cishek ($6,750,000)
RP - Sergio Romo ($5,000,000)
RP - Darren O'Day ($3,500,000)



*** Salaries listed are what they were due to make in 2020 ***

*** Bold = Option Not Picked Up ***

(Updated as of 5:50 PM - 10/29/2020)
 
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Brad Hand has been placed on waivers.

If he clears the Indians intend to exercise the buy out to his 10m option to save 9m.

I would not think he would go unclaimed.

That's a contender walking away from a very reasonably priced and still fairly dominant closer.

It's going to be a mess out there.

Guys like Melancon, Greene may be CHEAP.

The way I see it, if guys are going to be cheap, I mean rock bottom prices, this benefits a team like the Braves, because we do have a lot of payroll flexibility (shout out to AA for those 1 year deals). Sure, we might have to come way down from last year's payroll, but it might leave us enough room to operate under whatever our new budget is and still field a world series contender.

This also means we are stuck with Inciarte.
 
The way I see it, if guys are going to be cheap, I mean rock bottom prices, this benefits a team like the Braves, because we do have a lot of payroll flexibility (shout out to AA for those 1 year deals). Sure, we might have to come way down from last year's payroll, but it might leave us enough room to operate under whatever our new budget is and still field a world series contender.

This also means we are stuck with Inciarte.

If we dump O'Day and non-tender Camargo/Luke, that puts payroll at 85 million WITH arb. If 120 is a projection and it could be even more who knows, that's 35 million to play with. And if prices are going to be this cheap, AA could build a hell of a roster.

Ender is probably impossible to dump unless we just do a bad salary swap.
 
I do like the idea somebody posted the other day of Ender with a prospect or 2 for JDM from Boston and see if they bite. JDM has 2 years left and is a mashing righty.
 
If we dump O'Day and non-tender Camargo/Luke, that puts payroll at 85 million WITH arb. If 120 is a projection and it could be even more who knows, that's 35 million to play with. And if prices are going to be this cheap, AA could build a hell of a roster.

Ender is probably impossible to dump unless we just do a bad salary swap.

O'Day has been "dumped".

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/10/braves-decline-darren-odays-option.html

First thought is that AA feels like he can get Melancon back on a 1 year deal for similar money.
 
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I do like the idea somebody posted the other day of Ender with a prospect or 2 for JDM from Boston and see if they bite. JDM has 2 years left and is a mashing righty.

That was me but all in all I think the idea is pretty much wishful thinking.
 
Pretty much seals Jacksons fate.

Not so sure about that - if the projections are right, Jackson will make $2,000,000 vs. the $3,500,000 that was owed O'Day. They saved $1 million even with the buyout. That's $1 million to pay Melancon or Greene to come back while keeping Jackson as a mop-up/6th inning guy.

Exactly the kind of moves we should probably expect to see everywhere - no one other than the top-tier free-agents and arbitration eligible guys are going to make *hit this winter. The Indians placed Hand on waivers hoping to save $1 million because they (correctly) understand that no one's giving them anything of value to get Hand this winter - and he's about as elite as it gets. At least the Braves would still have an arm to go with the $1 million saved here.
 
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It is pretty surprising to me. Money may be almost nonexistent.

The options being declined right now are pretty damning.

This.

Several people other than myself mentioned the doom-and-gloom that we thought was on its way with the revenue hits teams took without *sses in the seats and parking/merchandise/concession revenues disappearing a couple months ago.

It's still early yet, but it's at least shaping up to look like those predictions held merit - at least so far.

Only listened to XM for a few minutes this morning, but they were framing a discussion that the numbers are so bad that even guys like Ozuna and Brantley MAY have to bet on themselves once again and settle for 1 year deals if they want to make anything resembling "market value" in 2021.
 
The way I see it, if guys are going to be cheap, I mean rock bottom prices, this benefits a team like the Braves, because we do have a lot of payroll flexibility (shout out to AA for those 1 year deals). Sure, we might have to come way down from last year's payroll, but it might leave us enough room to operate under whatever our new budget is and still field a world series contender.

This also means we are stuck with Inciarte.

Uhh, seems like it benefits the large market teams the most. They have more payroll flexibility than we do and with salaries looking to be at bargain levels this off-season, they can load up and not have to worry about the luxury tax.
 
It is pretty surprising to me. Money may be almost nonexistent.

The options being declined right now are pretty damning.

Wonder if the player's union gets involved here and threatens a work stoppage? Obviously COVID has changed the market and economy dramatically, but this could reset the market completely moving forward.
 
Uhh, seems like it benefits the large market teams the most. They have more payroll flexibility than we do and with salaries looking to be at bargain levels this off-season, they can load up and not have to worry about the luxury tax.

Yes but we don't even know if the large market teams will be spending. They have claimed to have lost the most. Yankees for example are saying they want to reduce payroll and get under the threshold. If that's the case, they're not going to have a lot of money to play with, especially after they target guys like Lamehieu and Bauer.

A team I can really see this helping is the Mets. If there new owner is truly looking to spend immediately, he can quickly build a contending team via free agency.
 
Not so sure about that - if the projections are right, Jackson will make $2,000,000 vs. the $3,500,000 that was owed O'Day. They saved $1 million even with the buyout. That's $1 million to pay Melancon or Greene to come back while keeping Jackson as a mop-up/6th inning guy.

Exactly the kind of moves we should probably expect to see everywhere - no one other than the top-tier free-agents and arbitration eligible guys are going to make *hit this winter. The Indians placed Hand on waivers hoping to save $1 million because they (correctly) understand that no one's giving them anything of value to get Hand this winter - and he's about as elite as it gets. At least the Braves would still have an arm to go with the $1 million saved here.

Luke Jackson is worth no more than the minimum in this environment, I would think.

While he's been approaching good in the past, he didn't merit the postseason roster. I'd be surprised if he's retained in the end.
 
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