Official Offseason Thread

I wonder if this will help speed up a potential Contreras trade. Teams are going to have to start making decisions as catchers come off the board. Do the Braves wait on a deal with the Cubs or make a strong push for Castro? Seems like you have to get Castro while he is out there.
 
Yeah that's pretty terrible. Bryant only has about 55-70 million in surplus value with 2 years remaining, and depending on the ruling of his hearing, he could have half of that. Fried is coming off a 3 WAR season and is projected for another 3 WAR season in 2020. He has 5 years of control, suggesting he should have near 100 million or more in surplus value (or at least that is how the Braves should value him). Fried straight up for Bryant is terrible value, much less Fried plus all the other prospects.

Until the judgement on Bryant's hearing, it's hard to imagine a trade working out for any team, unless the Cubs take a 1 for 1 deal like Betts for Bryant or something along those lines.

Waters plus something else would probably be about right. Still trading for an expensive position player seems like an odd decision.
 
Grandal gets 4 years at an AAV of $18.25 from the White Sox.

Donaldson will have 4 year offers.

I would not draw too many conclusions about Donaldson from Grandal.

Grandal is two years younger and has remarkable positional value.

Donaldson has an injury history and has clearly demonstrated that he's not the player he used to be, though he's still very good. Still, he is obviously in decline.

I do wonder though if we are going to have a pricy free agency this season after so much restraint last season and it kind of being in baseball's interest to not push the values down too much this year.
 
Having a team like the White Sox looking to make their push back to contention after a long rebuild is certainly going to help the FA market.

It's good to see a team pushing the issue and acting decisively rather than sitting back counting their pennies.
 
Having a team like the White Sox looking to make their push back to contention after a long rebuild is certainly going to help the FA market.

It's good to see a team pushing the issue and acting decisively rather than sitting back counting their pennies.

agree. It seems like there are opportunities to make deals if teams step up and offer reasonable deals and players aren't making crazy demands.

Glad for Grandal too, b/c he's been going year to year.

MM might finally be looking at 3 year deal too.

I want an offseason that moves. I'm expecting JD to be gone. I'm curious to see what AA does to counteract that. I'd be ok to play Riley at third base if they get real hitters at both corner OF and one of C/SS. Having 1-2 position players who aren't studs is ok, we just can't be worse than we were last year. If JD is gone then I want 7.5 wins more in the lineup and a power bat. That can be done but it's going to cost money and prospects.

I can stomach a rotation of Soroka, Fried, Folty, Newk and the best of Wright/Wilson/Touki/Anderson/Weigel/Davidson/etc. But if we do that we need to upgrade the line up, not downgrade it.
 
If you're interested in a good laugh this morning: https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-trade-ideas-that-just-might-work

I saw that. WOW.
Why do the people writing these have no concept of actual deals?

I'm not an athletic subscriber. I have seen them do some articles where writers from two team try to work out a trade. Are those any better?

I do not see us giving up major prospects for a Boras guy. That guy is not resigning. We have to pay market value for two years and that isn't enough for the cubs to deal him.

I'm really hoping the royals are so far away that they consider moving whit. And that there old school front office can be convinced that Wright and Touki and stuff are good players b/c they are tall and throw hard.
 
There were a lot more pitching prospects the last 5 years than these...Allard, Gohara, Gant, Jenkins, ManBan, etc, etc...

I'm sure the next reply will be something along the lines of, "wellllll...those other guys weren't REALLY good prospects".

Then why acquire them rather than position prospects? Why did folks on this board list them out time and time again while drooling over how awesome they were? Am I the only one who remembers the countless posts where folks filled out the entire pitching staff of the future with internal guys, and then marveled at how great that staff would be? After all that drooling, folks are seriously going to suggest, "they weren't REALLY that good"?

If the Braves still had to spend $44M on the 2020 BP, what was the point in accumulating all those arms? Who failed? Why aren't they going to fail again?

lol exactly. I hated many of the deals we made in the rebuild, but people just kept telling me that "we did the best we could" and that we'd "stockpile arms now to use as currency later to get position players".

Ya... none of that was real.
 
This is in line with the AAV range I figured the 4 year offers would be. MLBTR guessed he would get 4/68, and FG guessed 4/70. The ChiSox kicked in a little extra to get this deal done early in the off season. Good for them.

I guess that theory about Grandal possibly preferring 2/40+ over 4/70+ was proven incorrect.

AA likely knew this was the way it would shake out before he signed Smith, and now Castro should be the prime FA target. FG predicts him at 2/12, and MLBTR has him at 2/10. He's a good framer and a nice platoon partner with Flowers.

Totally agree on Castro. If you add their stats together that gives us a pretty good unit and it's nice to keep the LH/RH split.
 
The Grandal deal is not bad for the Sox. I think he will average 3 WAR over the next 4 seasons. Say 4, 3, 3, 2. Under that scenario they will end up paying 6M per win.

Before the Smith deal, I would have done this deal for Grandal. He's averaged 5 fWAR over the past 5 seasons and half of that comes from him averaging about 25 FRAA per year which should age better than his other skills. I think that 12 WAR over the contract is probably his median expected outcome, but I could easily see him putting up somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 if his bat stays above average. Great deal for the White Sox. Our focus has to shift to Castro or a trade piece.

One interesting thing I haven't seen anyone bring up is the fact that this now potentially makes the other White Sox catchers expendable. A guy like Zack Collins would provide us with a young, cheap, controllable lefty catcher who hits righties far better than lefties. The White Sox need young pitching that is close to the majors and outfield help. I could see some potential deals in the works for a guy like that, since they also have James McCann for next year. Its a bit farfetched since Collins is still pre-arb, but if the White Sox are going into win-now mode I think a mutually beneficial deal could be made there.
 
Maybe the White Sox want to trade James McCann.

I think Zack Collins would be a better target since he is young, cheap, controllable, and a better platoon partner for Flowers. The big issue with Zack is that he is unproven. But he does have a relatively high prospect pedigree and is MLB ready.
 
Until our pitching staff is dealt with I would be hesitant to count on Collins for 80 or so games.

Collins would certainly be a move for offensive upside rather than defensive. Castro is probably preferable due to his framing. If we miss out on a guy like him though, I think Collins would be a solid target, albeit a high risk/reward one.
 
Braves exec to investors: ‘We’re set up to win, and we’re going after it’

Link: https://www.ajc.com/sports/baseball...t-win-and-going-after/WZehZG2YPDft6nB4WvnPgP/

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