CrimsonCowboy
Moderator
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Joc Pederson has declined his mutual option with Arizona.
I get the other ones, but does Joc think he's going to make more than $14 MM in 2025? He may want a longer contract and two years at slightly less AAV is more than 1/$14 MM. No question he had a solid 2024, but I'm curious about his market.
Joc had a pretty terrific 3 year run on offense. I think 2/25 with a 3rd year option is the baseline of what he's looking for.
Also, I am not so sure why Cole would immediately be the top arm on the market. He had a considerable "down season" at age 33 and missed half the season due to injury. Would teams really prefer him over Fried and Burnes? I sure wouldn't if the money was equal.
Since this is a hot stove thread let me throw a hypothetical trade out there. A 3 way trade between the Braves White Sox and Red Sox. The Red Sox get Crochet - Andrew Benintindi - and Ramon Laureano. Braves get Wilyer Abreu - David Hamilton and Luis Robert. The White Sox get prospects from us. Who knows what exactly it would take but probably would have to be significant. Like AJSS and Waldrep plus more. The White Sox cut all their remaining payroll and get back some good prospects. Red Sox get Crochet while only having to give up Abreu and Hamilton since they take back the Benintendi contract. Red Sox are LH heavy but a lot of that is in their incoming prospects. Benintendi and Laureano gives them a LF platoon until those prospects come up. Benintendi actually had a pretty good second half at the plate and the Red Sox are very familiar with him. Braves get OF depth to dream of adding Robert and Abreu. Both are position versatile enough that we can swap them out easily as needed. Hamilton pushes Arcia at SS and atleast gives us a good lefty platoon option at the position. Arcia might hit better playing less too. The price for Braves would be steep but Abreu and Hamilton are pre-arb players super cheap with years of service time left and Roberts is relatively cheap for 3 more years. So these are all long term pieces we are adding. Allows us to spend more on proven players for the rotation. We could theoretically probably afford to re-sign Fried if we fixed the offense this cheaply.