The Red Sox are continuing to demonstrate a patient approach when it comes to free agency as they wait to learn what new changes the latest collective bargaining agreement will bring about, reports WEEI’s Rob Bradford. With Boston’s luxury tax payroll not far off from the current $189MM threshold, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is one of several top decision-makers from around the league that is waiting to determine exactly how much wiggle room he’ll have with regard to the luxury tax barrier before spending. As Bradford points out, while teams like the Astros (signing Josh Reddick, trading for Brian McCann) and Cardinals (signing Brett Cecil) have already spent at a notable level, those clubs aren’t anywhere near the current luxury cutoff. Bradford notes that a bat to help offset the loss of David Ortiz as well as an eighth-inning reliever remain the top targets for Boston.
Elsewhere in the AL East…
- As a followup to Roch Kubatko’s report that the Orioles aren’t showing any inclination toward trading Zach Britton, ESPN’s Buster Olney argues (Insider subscription required) that GM Dan Duquette should be very open to doing just that. The price of relief pitching around the league is rising, Olney notes, and Britton’s projected $11.4MM salary isn’t all that prohibitive, especially to the big-market clubs that are looking for elite relief help this winter. Controlled for two more seasons, Britton could fetch the Orioles enough young talent to immediately plug multiple holes on the roster while also bolstering the farm system. The Orioles might not be offered enough to make the deal palatable, Olney notes, but with three top-tier relievers on the market (Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, Mark Melancon) but far more suitors looking for dynamic late-inning arms, the Orioles should at least be dangling Britton on the trade market to see if an overwhelming offer surfaces.
- Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News opines that the Yankees should focus on Mike Napoli rather than Carlos Beltran if they’re eyeing a veteran bat to spend time at DH. Napoli, like Beltran, can be had on a short-term deal — likely two years at the most — and would provide some insurance at first base for Greg Bird, who is returning from shoulder surgery. Beltran can’t offer that luxury, Feinsand notes, and at age 40 he might be looking for a more clear-cut World Series contender than the Yankees.
- Although Tim Beckham was sent home by the Rays at the end of the 2016 season, prompting some to speculate that his time with the team could be drawing to a close, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wrote this weekend that Beckham now looks to be part of the 2017 picture, thanks largely to his defensive ability. Topkin also expanded a bit on Tampa Bay’s interest in Jason Castro, noting that while the catcher’s agent told him recently that the Rays are “in the thick of things” with regard to Castro, it’s not characteristic for the Rays to win a free-agent bidding war. A three-year commitment north of $20MM seems unlikely to come from the Rays, Topkin writes, which leads him to wonder if the team might instead pursue a trade for Miguel Montero, assuming the Cubs would be willing to include some salary in the deal.
RaysFan2021
Get Castro!!!!!!!!!
beauvandertulip
You want Castro? As a pitch framer he’s A .. but everything else about him… it’s bad let me tell you
yeahhhjeets
Both Napoli and Beltran will be great additions to the Yankee roster. I rather have Beltran due to the familiarity with the team and to help mentor the young up and coming prospects ( judge, Frazier, fowler , cave , Williams / Austin / refsnyder )
Dannydeman
It baffles me that the yankees produce their first successful prospect in years in Sanchez and now all of the sudden they are all completely over rating their prospects and talking about a youth movement. The redsox and cubs have a successful and high caliber youth movement going on. None of the Yankee prospects are even on their tier. If you look at all the players even optimistic projections there are barely a couple borderline all stars. Have you looked at the full scouting reports of your top minor leaguer in Torres? Even at his best projection he is not a super star like bogaerts, betts, Bradley, he is optimistically projected as an everyday major league and occasional fringe all star candidate. He has played in the lower level of minor leagues and statistically still hasn’t even put up numbers to warrant any talk. Most of your prospects honestly look like failed prospects or ones that may never even be everyday major league players. You may say I am being harsh in the Criticism but look at what you have there, none of those players are being called possible super stars exept Sanchez and your lucky if that’s not a fluke. Redsox have eddy Rodriguez,Bradley,xzander,betts, bentitendi,moncada, kopech, groome, devers. All of which are of a higher caliber than any of your prospects other than Sanchez at this point.
Capo
And don’t forget 2 last place finish in the past 5 years
dobsonel
Why not just say you have a clear Red Sox bias and you lack the time and energy to do any real research or pay attention to anything the Yanks have been doing the last 3 seasons?
Dannydeman
You have to be joking. Just look at your prospects. Your number one is Torres. Ranked in the late teens on the top 100. I believe he hit 270 in high a ball last year with like 11 hr. I am the one who is biased? For what saying that none of your prospects is of the same pedigree that betts, bogaerts, Bradley, moncada, benitendi. Were and are? Moncada is baseballs #1 overall, xzander was as well, benitendi is #5. Betts and Bradley were both higher as well. Plus they all project much higher and have had success at the minor and major league level. Your top prospects are high a ball prospects that haven’t even accomplished anything at that level yet.
yankeesfan681202
Typical Red Sox fan, Rodriguez was never ranked as high as Torres, Frazier, Mateo, or Judge who are all in the top 50, Rodriguez was barely in the top 100, as for Betts and Bradley Jr, they weren’t either, they cracked the top 100 but never in the 15-40 range like the Yankees prospects. As for the high A ball prospects you refer to and Torres’s performance there, it was a predominantly pitcher friendly league, he’s only 19, and he hit .270 with 11 hrs, he absolutely crushed in the Fall League. Also you can’t say all of the Yankees prospects are high A, since Judge, Frazier, Andujar, Sheffield, Enns, Cave, etc are all double A or above, also you seem to be unaware that the Red Sox top prospects are also far away, Devers, Kopech, and Groome all High A, just admit that the Yankee farm is better now, better than the Red Sox and the Yankees didn’t have to completely suck or have a losing season to get it. After Moncada and Benintendi there’s nothing in the Red Sox farm in terms of top end talent, and the Yankees now have depth and quality everywhere, more top end talent than the Red Sox so just deal with it.
JT19
More top end talent? The Yankees best players are (in no particular order) Tanaka, Sanchez, Betances. The Yankees have the Sox beat in terms of end game relief, but the Sox’s rotation is far and away better than the Yankees and their overall lineup is better. After Sanchez, their second best hitter is probably Gardner or Gregorius. Betts, Boegarts, Hanley, Bradley, and Pedroia are all better than those two. Betts is probably the best hitter on the two teams considering Sanchez’s small sample size as well.
yankees4life
and you forget Castro. you’re ignorance is showing
jayq
I am entirely in the dark as to what comment I made to whiich you are replying.
yankees4life
my bad man wrong person
yankees4life
unlike you I do my research. The yankees have 4 in the top 25 while you only have 2 and bennentendi is only 45 at bats from losing prospect status
yankees4life
exactly and the yankees farm system was ranked 1-2 in the majors
Dannydeman
well first off in the past 5 years the red sox have finished last twice, they also have 2 division titles and a world series championship. the Yankees have missed the playoffs 4 straight years.
secondly on the topic of high caliber, superstar corner stones.
here is a list of their top 5 major league 25 year old and under talents
redsox
1- mookie betts (#2 mvp voting)
2- xzander bogaerts (all-star)
3- Jackie Bradley (all-star)
4- Eduardo rodriguez
5- blake swihart
top 3 minor league bats
1- yoan moncada (#1 mlb)
2- Andrew benitendi (#5 mlb)
3- Rafael devers (#16 mlb)
top 3 minor league arms
1- Jason Groome (#30 mlb)
2- Michael Kopech (#67 mlb)
3- brian Johnson
now the Yankees.
major leagues
1- Gary Sanchez (looks great)
2- Greg bird (injured last year)
3- Severino (5+ era)
4- rob refsnyder (….
5- ……………
minor league bats
1- clint frazier (#15 mlb)
2- glyber torres (#17 mlb)
3- Jorge Mateo (#18 mlb)
minor league pitching
1- Justus Sheffield (#78 mlb)
2- James Kaprielian
3- Chance Adams
if you do some digging on production in the minors and majors, as well as scouting reports pertaining to what the players ceilings are you’ll see that super star talent wise it is not even a close competition.
the red sox and cubs have a youth movement, what the Yankees have is a bowel movement….
yankees4life
You’re ignorance is truly showing. In the last 5 years the Yankees have been division champs twice (2011-2012) and have never finished below 4th (2016) the Yankees have finished 2nd and third in once each time and have a better farm system then you. Frazier/judge/torreyes/Sheffield/Tate/Mateo/kaperlian. You have monacada and bennintendi(both will lose prospect status before some Yankees even make their debut) many great prospects compared to 2. You’re ignorance and Red Sox bias is truly showing I would do your research before you post again. And like e-rod and swihArt have any real value compared to the guys we have.
yankees4life
And YOU DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPELL XANDER THERE IS NO Z. It is like the easiest name to spell
Dannydeman
Lmao my ignorance is showing? Do you think repeating your favorite phrase over and over makes you sound intelligent little boy?
First off learn math. The last 5 seasons are 2012 13 14 15 and 16. You made the play offs once and have no World Series to show for your last 5 seasons. Secondly you keep talking about players losing their prospect status like it’s a bad thing. Isn’t that the goal? You are acting like players staying prospects and not graduating to the majors is a bonus lol. All of our prospects, pretty much the same age as yours are going to the majors or already producing all star and MVP numbers in the majors, meanwhile your best aren’t even producing well in A ball. And you are a fool to say the eduardo Rodriguez shouldn’t be mentioned, he is better than any of your young pitchers by far. So far we have an organization full of high talent youth from betts, bogaerts, Bradley, to moncada, benitendi, groome, and e-rod. And you have produced 1 exciting and productive major league talent in Gary Sanchez.
yankees4life
My bad I was off by a year by again do you’re research. First off it was twice in 5 years. 2012 and 2015. Second if you even looked at the prospect list there are 4 or 5 Yankees in the top 25 while you only have 2. That means we have a better farm system than you. we have 6 in the top 100 and you have 5. Get you’re facts straight before you show how ignorant you are. Oh and e-rod had a era of 4.5+ and swihart is no more than average not a super star like you peg him to be. Do you even read anything besides Red Sox posts? Go take ur wack Red Sox bias somewhere else and do some research and them come back because a lot of what you said is factually inaccurate
Dannydeman
Do my research lmao. You have 4 prospects in the top 25 and we have 3 lol.
Dannydeman
You are the one saying factually inaccurate things over and over. Read the scouting report my whole point was the redsox have a better youth movement with higher end talent and super star projections. We already have young super stars producing at the major league level, and have 2 prospects ranked in the top 5 in baseball. Our pitching prospects are also ranked much higher than any of yours. Also how did I peg swihart as a super star? All I did was list him as our 5th best major league 25 and under. And e-rod had growing pains indeed but scouts still project him as a top of the rotation talent, he was coming off an injury and took a while to get going, check out his game logs and see how he started pitching after he worked his way back. Also on the topic of erod he still had a better year than Severino and his ceiling is still projected higher than any of your un ranked pitching prospects
yankees4life
No you have said the factually inaccurate things such as the names of players or guys on the prospect lists. We have many a much better farm system than you and scouts and analysists peg both the Yankees and the Sox to compete for a long time such as fox sports released a report that said the top 10 teams that would win the WS this year and the Yankees were on it. Look at the prospect list and scouting reports and you will see that the Yankees actually in fact have a better youth movement than you. everybody on that list will be up within 2020-2021. Go do some research before you do some research and have a nice day goodbye
Dannydeman
You are clearly a fool
yankees4life
unlike you I do my research. The yankees have 4 in the top 25 while you only have 2 and bennentendi is only 45 at bats from losing prospect status
DRocco
40-year-old wanting a more “clear-cut World Series contender than the Yankees?” It will be the Yankees rejecting Beltran, NOT the other way around.
John Murray
The Yankees will have growing pains from going young. They’re well positioned, but guys like Headley, Gardner and Ellsbury aren’t the heart of a strong offense. Once they know what they have in the kids – that’s when they should invest. Beltran, at 40, doesn’t want to be a mentor, he wants to win the big one.
JT19
Can you firmly say the Yankees are a clear-cut World Series contender? The Yankees will be competitive and should be able to at least fight for a playoff spot next year, but they’re not a World Series contender right now (they didn’t even make the playoffs this past year). The Yankees aren’t even the best team in their division (in no particular order, the Sox and Jays are better and the Orioles could be depending on what they do this offseason) so I can’t see them being heavily favored to win it all.
Bald Vinny
With Napoli’s jaw surgery, he isn’t going to shave his beard.
ccremer2
The amount of players that don’t want to come to New York because of a simple rule is too damn high
assumptions
Gd the rays continue to fail their fans every time just to continue maximizing profits…leave the old ass catchers alone and put together a competitive team.
pinballwizard1969
Napoli over Betran only works if you believe it’s better to give Napoli 2 years than Beltran 1 year and that Napoli will come something close to what he did in 2016. I’m not so sure that will be the case. Beltran on a 1 year is a no brainer even at the cost of what a QO would have been $17MM. As they say there is no such thing as a bad one year deal. For the record my preference is Beltran than Matt Holliday if Beltran isn’t available.
dwilson10
As an O’s fan I’d love to see the team trade Britton. The O’s get too emotionally attached to their players to trade them away. They always say they want to win but when you have an opportunity like this to plug multiple holes on your team with young talented players and you don’t consider doing it, it makes me wonder if they are serious about competing. Buck can only do so much with the type of players Duquette gets him and Britton could get them some players back that would make Buck’s job a hell of a lot easier.
bobtillman
O’s need to get a farm system….it amazes me that Duquette was so great in Montreal building a system, and has pooped the bed in Boston and Baltimore farm-system wise…….Not saying he’s a bad GM, but maybe he needs a new scouting guy.
To basterdize Tony Larussa’s classic saying, trading Britton is going to make Bucky a 5-game dumber manager……O’s fans are pretty fortunate to have him tho….he’s in the discussion for the best around…..
Manny's Pancakes
I too, would love for the Orioles to rebuild the farm system, and sell high on Britton. I just can’t figure out what team would actually trade for him. Teams like the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Cubs will all be in play for Jansen/Chapman/Melancon.
I can’t see the Nationals or any AL East team trading with the Orioles. Unless somehow Philadelphia or Atlanta want to enter win-now mode. Teheran plus a prospect?
I could see Cleveland being a fit if they offered Brantley.
JT19
Cleveland isn’t a fit with Cody Allen and Andrew Miller already in the pen. I also doubt they offer Brantley since a healthy Brantley should help their chances of getting back to the playoffs and would give them another good bat in that lineup.
bencole
I can’t even believe I just read this. You think Britton would even bringTeheran alone? Plus a prospect? I actually think Teheran is way overrated, not nearly an ace, but there’s zero chance Atlanta is trading their best, and only frontline pitcher especially one that cheap and controllable like Teheran. Britton is one of the best closers in the game, arguably top 2-3, but no closer is bringing back a major league frontline young pitcher like that. And I’m not a Braves fan. Not being disrespectful, but I can’t even believe I just read this.
virginiascopist
I agree. Britton could bring back a lot in trade (either in prospects or major league-ready players). I think the Cubs would be a good match with the Os.
Manny's Pancakes
Given that the Cubs balked at a Andrew Miller-Schwarber trade at the deadline, I can’t imagine the Orioles getting anything more than Jorge Soler+ a low level prospect in return for Britton.
Soler’s affordability, and power upside (that could play very well in Camden Yards) would be very intriguing. It could also be a total bust, but the Orioles would shed 6-8/million in salary a year that could be used to sign a pretty good bullpen arm (Greg Holland?)
JT19
Soler plus a low level prospect would be a steal for the Cubs. Considering the price it took the Cubs to acquire Chapman, a deal for Britton (who has another two years of control) will cost at least two good prospects. Schwarber would be off the table so you’re probably talking prospects in the Soler/Happ/Candelario range. Don’t really know the Cubs farm, but I’m sure the Orioles would probably ask for one of the Cubs better pitching prospects in a deal.
bronxbombers
Didn’t the Cubs just give up their number one prospect in Gleyber for a 2 month rental what makes you think the best releiver this year would cost you anything less than at least one top 3 prospect and another 2 in the 5-20 range
slider32
I still think the Sox are waiting to make a deal for Sale, they just want the right package.
Blue_Painted_Dreams_LA
Woooowww did you just suggest a salary dump for 2016’s most dominant closer? How soon we forget what Giles received, what Miller was worth and what a couple of months Chapman returned. That’s a joke. Now add onto that your looking at two full years for Britton. With no incentive to move him. So if they were to trade Britton you’re looking at a Miller type package. Plus if Soler has a monster type year he going to arb so he’s no longer cheap. Smh Soler won’t cut it I’m sorry. Soler and a low level prospect won’t cut it. If you want Soler it’s going to hurt.
redsox for_life
Yep!! Bradley ,Devers , Kopech, and 2 lo-level prospects for Sale! Pomeranz in the bullpen plus Beltran!! Ready for 2017!Go Redsox
pukelit
I still feel like the Yankees are going to try and make a bigger splash and go after a player like Encarnacion before they go after Beltran or Napoli. They majority of the competition for Edwin is in the division and the Yankees have the deepest pockets. I think they’re going to try to expedite the rebuild before the fans get impatient
slider32
If the Yanks can trade both Gardner and Headley they will go after EE, otherwise they sign Beltran. They might also sign Chapman and Hammels.
wiredrunner
Chapman’s stock went through the roof after the series. He’s going to be expensive.
jd396
There’s all the great things about baseball and then there’s MLB’s backwards financial system. *sigh*
koz16
Why would the Yankees want Napoli? At this point he’s a .230 hitter with 24 HR power. They’ve got kids on their roster that can hit .250 with 15 HR’s. Is it really worth the extra millions for 10 more HR’s and maybe a dozen more RBI’s?
notagain27
Uh oh, just read the first Julio Tehran trade comment; here comes the avalanche of off the wall Tehran trade proposals. If you were the Orioles and Duquette, why wouldn’t you simply hold onto Britton until at least the July trade deadline? Next year’s free agent closers can’t be as strong as this years class perhaps driving Britton’s value even higher.
JT19
Four reasons why it makes sense to move him now. First, it’ll be easier for teams to take on his cap charge and how to balance it with the rest of their roster now than midseason. Second, any extra control, even half a year is valuable (although I will admit that teams are probably more likely to overpay midseason if they think the player is a difference maker). Third, coming off his best season (and probably the best reliever this year from a regular season standpoint), his value probably can’t get any higher. Finally, if he gets injured or starts to struggle (not saying he will and I hope he doesn’t but given the volatile nature of relievers, who knows) his value would be terribly low.
bobtillman
Excellent, really excellent comments. I think Dandy Dan has to try and figure if he’s in the chase this year, and go from there. For that reason only, I think they hold him until midseason. Baltimore isn’t Tampa; they want a winner. And I’m not sure that they like the “rebuild” model with Machado and Jones and Davis around.
ccremer2
How long until Trumbo’s market starts to form. Is he the backup plan for teams looking at Edwin and Cespedes? I would think that an AL team would love his power and the NL could take advantage of his ability to play multiple positions (although he’s no where close to a gold deliver). He’s also a lot younger than most other power options
jayq
I think the BoSox ought to move on from Papi -totally. They do not need to replace him, as if they could. They have adequate bats {Shaw, Sandoval, Moncada, Young] to stand in at DH. They are never going to find the electricity Ortiz brought to the plate.
They ought to concentrate on pitching and protecting their backsides from FO raids by the “snakes”.