If the Mets are to sustain the success they enjoyed in 2015 in future seasons, they’ll need to depend on their farm system to continue churning out talent, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes. The Mets have added key players to their active roster in each of the past several years, including Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Michael Conforto last season. (They also used a number of prospects to help them acquire key big-league talent down the stretch in 2015, most notably Michael Fulmer in the Yoenis Cespedes trade.) They’ll continue to lean on a farm system that, after the graduations of a number of top pitching talents, is heavy on position players like Gavin Cecchini, Dilson Herrera and Brandon Nimmo. Here’s more from throughout the game.
- The list of key position players who remain unsigned (Cespedes, Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, Chris Davis) raises questions about whether any of them could sign for significantly less or for significantly fewer years than anticipated, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski writes. It remains unclear whether Davis and the Orioles could revisit their contract discussions — as ESPN’s Buster Olney reported last week, the O’s rescinded their $150MM offer to Davis, and while there could be more talks between the two sides, some within the organization might feel that they don’t need to offer so much again if other teams aren’t entering the bidding at $150MM or more.
- The Indians ultimately signed Mike Napoli rather than free agent slugger Pedro Alvarez because Napoli is a right-handed hitter and because he improved their defense, Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer writes. Napoli, a solid defensive first baseman, allowed the Indians to move Carlos Santana to DH. Alvarez, a huge defensive liability last year in Pittsburgh, might well have had to play DH himself.
That Pedro Alvarez market is pretty grim, if he’s being viewed as a strict DH. Only potential openings at DH are on Baltimore or Tampa Bay. Maybe Oakland if they cut Butler. Kind of crazy how a recent home run titlist will probably have to play in Japan next year.
Baltimore will sign him to replace Davis.
I wonder if any conflict of interest exist in the fact that Baltimore is the best fit for Davis and his market could collapse if they signed Alvarez as an alternative. I could see the Os calling Boras for Alvarez and being told he is not available for them, lol.
I would love that to happen. Then Alvarez could sue Boras. It would be a direct conflict of interest. Wouldn’t it be great if it lead to Agents not being allowed to represent more than one player in the same sport? Boras and Jay Z would have to pick one client. No more power agents. Ticket prices stabilize and more families go to games. Concessions and attendance rise. The Game enters a golden age, where players consider signing extensions, instead of being pressured by the Union and Agents to get every last dollar. Kids start following their favorite Home Town star, knowing they wont be gone in 3 years. Baseball starts growing in popularity at a time Football is changing due to concussions. Better Athletes choose Baseball over Football, for health and length of career issues. Quality of players and play improve.
Come on Boras, do us all a favor. Tell Baltimore Alvarez is off the table. (Yeah, I can dream.)
If your scenario would occur, ticket prices would STILL RISE. Ownership will still grab as many dollars from the fans as they can. Agents are not the issue.Those Organizations that agree to pay such outrageous contracts are to blame. Period. Just like when the 90’s strike occurred because JR was a main opponent of rising salaries and then after the strike promptly went out and signed Belle to that 56 mil deal which was the biggest in the game at the time.
Don’t mess with my dream.
True
Baltimore won’t sign a player strictly for DH. Not with Trumbo playing 1st if they don’t resign Davis.
Ever hear of a guy named Singleton? One of the best DH’s in history? Played for Baltimore? It might not be their preference, but when on a budget, you look for opportunities.
Are you really referencing a guy who last played in 1984? You should have at least mentioned Harold Baines to get something from the last 30 years.
That is assuming you aren’t talking about Chris Singleton who played one season of part time crappy baseball for us in the early 2000s.
If you know anything about Buck, he loves versatility, and would hate to have a strict DH, regardless of budget.
Kenny Singleton wasn’t an Edgar Martinez, who played fulltime DH. Kenny was a pretty good fielder in the OF and perrenial AS. Not at all a comp for Alvarez.
ever heard of a guy named David Ortiz
Ortiz never played for Baltimore.
He was not good in the OF. He made Brian Downing look like he had range (for those that don’t go back that far, he didn’t). My only intended comparison, however, was that Kenny did spend part of his career as a full time DH, for Baltimore. Even Edgar did not spend his time exclusively at DH. He did play 3B.
Remember – Boras represents Alvarez too. If the O’s legitimately have interest in Alvarez, that is a tough spot for Boras to be in. Complete conflict of interest. If I were the O’s, I’d be pursuing Alvarez just to put the heat on Boras. You know Boras would play that game if the tables were turned. And, for the $ difference, I’d rather have Alvarez. He’d probably mash 40 in that park.
Yeah, definitely crazy with Alvarez. I like the guy, and wish things had worked differently, but the bizarre defensive regression has just killed his value. He was actually a pretty good third baseman for a few years, with a decent glove, better footwork than his stature would suggest, and an arm that got extra outs a lot of other 3B don’t get. Then the arm just utterly, completely lost its targeting system. The club tried to wait it out, and it didn’t get better. Then they move him to first, since his main issue at third had been the throwing, but it didn’t work there, either. “Liability” is a nice way to put it.
Funny thing, Boras floated a trial balloon a year or two ago about an early extension for Pedro – something his clients very rarely accept. Moral of the story, I guess – if Scott comes knocking on your door about extending one of his guys early….run. Run fast. Run far.
No way Oakland cuts Butler and eats that contract
its a shame too about alvarez being only known for only Hr’s..His biggest problem is he thinks too much and which has caused him to try tooooo hard.Most likley in the back of his mind he knew he had to start playing well if he wanted to continue to play and it affected his play.Maybe if he had a good batting coach who maybe figure how to bring it all together hitting more than just HR’s and most forget that last year was his first full year at playing first and some it takes a few years in the minors to learn and he had to do it on the fly,not sure how different it is from playing 3rd but maybe with the right coashing someone can turn him around ,i hope anyways
I think we are starting to see that with the influx of young talent, veteran free agents are just going to have to accept that they are going to have to sign for less money then originally hoped for. I also think advance stats have opened the door for more platoons at positions, which means teams are going to be more reluctant to sign 1 player for 150 when they can sign 2 players to a platoon for significantly less, and with some good managing, generate the same level of results
Is it the influx of young talent, or just the media hype and New statistics which project what “may” be, leading to more interest in the young talent? Young talent is risky, but is currently being talked about like a sure thing, due to projections that NEVER EVER show the player failing, or even being an average player (Ryan Franklin, Camerin Maybin, Chris Owings, Wes Middlebrooks…) Sure, players tend to produce less as they get older, but they still produce. That also seems to be forgotten.
I think it is the history of the long term deal that has teams leery of signing them in their current form. Ian Kinsler has a contract that is actually paying him less each year from its peak, but it is not the norm. I doubt these guys would still be on the market if they were willing to accept less for the years they are “projected” to produce less. But those aren’t the projections that they wish to talk about.
why give a guy 25 mil a year? For 6 years no thanks . You can two good players for that price better you chance of having a solid team.
I think an AL team could be potentially making a great move to sign Pedro Alvarez, whom I wonder could turn into a very good DH if he didn’t have to worry about his defense at all.
Alvarez’ problem is two-fold: he can’t be trusted at any position in the field and he isn’t a great hitter. Hes a solid home run hitter but strikes out way too much and never hits for average or bothers trying to go opposite field despite constantly seeing a barrage of pitches on the outer half of the plate and a very pronounced shift to play him to pull the ball.
I’ve been saying for years that if you line up ten lefty high school pitchers with a chance to get drafted and have them throw nothing but down and away sliders to Pedro he still strikes out 3-5 times and only gets 2-3 legitimate hits if you put a defense on the field.
David Ortiz has made a good living doing exactly what you described, or not doing it
Ortiz is a lot better hitter than Alvarez. It isn’t particularily close either.
That’s most power hitters for ya. How many guys that mash really put up a great average. Not many that aren’t superstars. So with all the pop that Pedro has he would be a great pickup if all you want out of him is home runs.
Isn’t that what Baltimore got from Davis in ’14?
Davis shouldn’t wait that longer, no one is going to use him as an everyday outfielder, no one will do what they Red Sox did last year with Hanley. I can’t see any team beating the 150mln offered by the O’s, Giants aren’t gonna sign him cuz Posey will have to play 1B in 2-3 years, Houston isn’t that interested, I also don’t really see the cardinals or Jays as fits, the offer he got was the best one he was going to get. But maybe he wants a change, he wants to play for a different team, nobody knows exactly. Probably he just thinks he can get more somewhere else, but he is not goimg to.
The difference between Davis and HanRam is that Davis has played the OF before. Just last year, he played 30 games in RF with average ratings from defensive metrics. Even before last year, he’s logged time in the OF. Going back to 2012, he played over 300 innings in the OF during Baltimore’s playoff run with average ratings from defensive metrics. Point is, a team may not want to use him as an every day option in the corner OF, but it wouldn’t be anything like the HanRam experiment.
It may help his value a bit, but in 2-3 years he will only be able to play 1B, don’t think any team will ever consider him an option for RF, especially NL teams. If anyone right now needs an outfielder they have plenty of options in the free agemt outfield market.
Davis shouldn’t wait that longer, no one is going to use him as an everyday outfielder, no one will do what they Red Sox did last year with Hanley. I can’t see any team beating the 150mln offered by the O’s, Giants aren’t gonna sign him cuz Posey will have to play 1B in 2-3 years, Houston isn’t that interested, I also don’t really see the cardinals or Jays as fits, the offer he got was the best one he was going to get. But maybe he wants a change, he wants to play for a different team, nobody knows exactly. Probably he just thinks he can get more somewhere else, but he is not going to.
It seems like the Tribe is making some sense, but it feels a lot like the Brandon Moss move last year. Hopefully it works out much better for them this year. Yes, Santana is that bad in the field.
Other than the walks, he’s not that much different from Alvarez at the plate, either.
That is the only reason Santana starts, his walks. Unlike Joey Votto he doesn’t hit for average or isn’t aggressive at the plate. His pop is minimal. I would say trade him but no one wants a 5’10 poor fielding first basemen who is passive at the plate.
I think the issue is these players’ agents saw the time and money that Heyward got and assume their guy will get the same deal, which is likely not going to occur. I think Upton may get the length of time, but no the money becasue he, like Heyward, is 26, but is no where as skilled as Heyward is. Gordon is too old to get that kind of length of contract and likely not that kind of money. Cespedes is a guy who could get near it, but these rumblings of not being a great teammate is impacting his status I think..
Upton is 28 not 26 by the way.
The Mets will also need an offensive power threat and a formidable bullpen to continue any success. Their current lineup isn’t awful, but it’s not very imposing, and the bullpen lacks that second shutdown arm or at least a solid set up man. They are banking on Jerry Blevins to be a solid reliever after a short strong stint from him last season before injuring his arm twice.