5:50PM: If completed, the deal would be a four-year pact, according to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko (Twitter link).
5:19PM: Rosenthal hears from a source that a deal is indeed close, though the three-year/$50MM terms from Rosenthal’s previous report are “not accurate.”
4:39PM: Right-hander Alex Cobb’s long stay in the free agent market could be nearing an end, as Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link) “there’s a strong belief that” Cobb is closing in on a new contract. The Orioles are considered by most to be the favorites to sign the 30-year-old, according to Passan, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (via Twitter) reports that the deal between the two sides is expected to be at least a three-year pact. Rosenthal adds that the O’s and Cobb had been discussing contracts in the range of three years and $50MM.
Cobb and the O’s have been linked for much of the offseason, as the righty was a natural fit for a Baltimore team that entered the winter with a dire need for pitching. The Orioles have already turned to free agency to sign Andrew Cashner and re-sign Chris Tillman, with those two veterans slotting in behind Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy in the rotation. Cobb would not only be a decided upgrade over current fifth starter candidates Mike Wright, Nestor Cortes Jr., and Miguel Castro, but the argument could be made that Cobb would be the best starter on Baltimore’s entire staff.
As Passan noted, Cobb has been holding out for a multi-year deal, as opposed to the one-year contracts that several notable players (i.e. Lance Lynn, Mike Moustakas, Carlos Gonzalez, Jonathan Lucroy, Logan Morrison, Neil Walker) have been forced to settle for in recent weeks due to the unprecedented lack of activity in the free agent market. Given this environment, a deal in the $50MM neighborhood would be a particularly nice result for Cobb and his representatives at the Beverly Hills Sports Council. That would actually be higher than the $48MM MLB Trade Rumors predicted Cobb would receive when we ranked him 11th on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents, though we projected that $48MM to come over a four-year contract.
Please lord Jesus let it be true!!!
Cannot believe he is still on the market. So glad the Orioles are making a move especially with him being comfortable in the AL East. It better be more like a 3 year/36 million deal.
Orioles will have to overpay. No pitcher willingly wants to come to Camden Yards and play in the AL East. It’ll at least be equivalent to the cubs 3/42 offer.
Cubs offer is meaningless at this point. My guess is 3 and $38M
Except in the article it literally says the offer is close to 50mm. So how in the world does he not get the 42?
Except in the update to the article it says that 3/50 is not accurate.
These articles get updated so some comments come in before certain info is posted.
People here really don’t understand leverage. Any team that gives him more than what he turned down by the Cubs is not smart unless they’re playoff contender with a giant hole in the rotation if someone gets hurt. Literally no reason to give him more than what he turned down by the Cubs.
How much leverage does the team have over Cobb? He’s the only pitcher left on the market and now teams have had an entire spring training to see how bad their SP’s options are .You’re also making the assumption that pitching in Baltimore for 3/42 and pitching in Chicago for 3/42 are equal. Ask any fa SP if that’s true… Cobb doesn’t have zero leverage in a deal. Maybe less than he did than but he wouldn’t sign for 3/42 with Chicago then.
Regardless a 4 year deal for Cobb from the orioles shows how the orioles have to overpay to get a quality pitcher on the FA market. It’d be great for us to start spending on IFA pitching at the least so we wouldn’t need to give out this kind of deal. I don’t have a problem with Cobb for four years because I think he’s a solid SP whose skills translate a lot better with a potential dip in velo. Certainly much better than a guy like ubaldo. But the injury concern is still there. Hopefully we change our stance one day so we don’t need to do this very often.
Totally agree. I’ve been in big dollar mediations (personal injury) and past offers or demands sometimes have no impact on new negotiations. In my case, it might be the loss of a witness, new medical or just disclosed surveillance. Time will tell but the Orioles having been burned recently in big ticket players are likely looking for a bargain. If not one year, probably three but at a lower than expected average.
Angelos spending money? What the hell? Good for O’s fans
Payroll is $40 million less than last year before this signing. Thx man… we’ll take him.
We lost ~22 million in payroll when ubaldo and Miley left alone. Cash and Tillman with incentives can’t even make that much. That’s before you think about Castillo, smith, hellickson and Tillman’s higher salary from last season off the books. We have the money for Cobb.
They’re projected to have a 145 mil payroll without Cobb this year according to Cot’s
Last year the Orioles had a payroll of 164 mil. Not sure why a team should spend more money if they weren’t close to winning the year before.
If you do some simple math we would still be under. Even if Cobb got 3/50 that would put you at a lower payroll. We know he didn’t get that now so we’re still comfortably under. Also if you followed Baseball last season the orioles were very much in the WC race before the last 6 weeks when we imploded.
Payroll with Cobb is $135. Still $29 million less than last year.
why? Lol they aren’t going to contend in that division
They still need to field a team and their fifth starter options aren’t good
Tillman
If all stay healthy, they can compete for a wild card. None of their five are aces but at least all are MLB quality. Throw in how Buck loves a challenge and my guess is they will be a clear upgrade from last year and certainly in the mix for at least the second wild card.
I hope they compete for a playoff berth, however, the planets will indeed need to align for that to happen. Davis needs to return to some form of capable MLB hitter, Gausman and Bundy need to make strides and the bullpen needs to remain a strength.
Yeah, lets roll over and die. Lets just tank like the other half of the league. We were firmly in the WC race before we collapsed in the last 6 weeks. Cobb and Cashner are a whole lot better than ubaldo and Miley. If Tillman can pitch anything like tilly used to we might be alright.
True. And take into account that Machado, Davis and Trumbo all underperformend. They can be in there. Redsox, Yankees and Orioles can make it out of the east.
Why not? Their payroll is $30 million below what it was last year on opening day. They can give it to Cobb or Angelos can keep it. Sure, they probably won’t win but sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle. This isn’t trading your top prospects for a 32 year old player.
why do they even bother?
just mail it in and let Boston and NY go straight to the ALCS
It’s not a one year deal.
Good for them to finally get somebody who upgrades their rotation. But three years is a little scary with his injury history.
On another note, Cobb’s gonna have to stay up all night tonight studying for his physical.
We’ll see if he can pass his physical given how tough Baltimore’s past ones have gone (Balfour, Gallardo)
That’s funny.
What’s gotten into the Orioles this is so unlike them to sign pitching
With the amount of notifications I’ve received about this development, you’d think Cobb was a superstar.
If they can get good value on three it’s probably worth the pick, cuz the SP future looks bleak at Camden
Before everyone gets excited this is Baltimore we’re talking about. The years and money agreed upon will change once Cobb’s physical indicates he has athlete’s foot.
LOL.
That was harsh, hilarious but harsh.
The O’s officially have a decent rotation. With the current bats and the way Buck handles a bullpen, they’ll contend.
“The way Buck handles a bullpen” HA. Good One. Like that time he left Ubaldo Jimenez in with runners on base in the 11th inning of the Wildcard game while his shut down closer was watching from the bullpen?
Get your facts straight before you spew your nonsense. If you know baseball (by your factual error I’m assuming you don’t) you’d know that Buck is considered the best at handling bullpens and has done the most with the least for 7 years. Moron…
Dan Duquette working his late offseason magic. O’s rotation looks good
Good? LOL don’t think so. I think they will be 4th or 5th in that division. Definitely the worst rotation in the division too
That’s why we play the games. Bundy and Gausman have as much potential as anyone. Cobb is a fine pitcher and cashner and Tillman aren’t too bad for a 4/5 combo. If Tillman flops our depth still isn’t very good but we aren’t nearly as weak as we have been in the rotation. Castro or Cortes should be serviceable depth options that we now don’t have to rely on them to be in the rotation all year. This is best case scenario for orioles fans.
I mean, you could do a lot worse than Bundy, Cobb, Gausman, Cashner and Tillman. At least they’re major league quality arms- just doing a quick overview of other teams, there are plenty of teams worse off:
At least they don’t have Odrisamer Despaigne as their number 3.
Nobody is going to confuse the orioles for having a top 10 rotation but as long we don’t have a bottom 5 like usual you’re talking about adding a good number of wins to the record. If Britton comes back early enough we could sneak into the playoffs.
Off season magic? When every other team is signing players for below market value on one year deals, he “magically” has found a way to over pay for the only player left, when no one else is interested. Abra Cadaver.
Do you mean abra cadabra?
he might of have that cadaver shoved up his ass while he was typing that out.
Ouch!
This sounded like a rap battle line
Don’t worry O’s fans Cobb is likely failing the physical anyway.
YES! Lets go
Hope he actually signs with us-we need a pitcher. Also, he is AL East tested, so hopefully he doesn’t bomb out. Only question is health.
Overrated, overpay to pitch in homer-happy Camden. Hahahahaha!!
Hahahhahahahhaa sign the best pitcher on the market who has proven he can pitch in the AL East with pretty good success! He only generates ground balls 50% of the time. So funny. Not one complaint from anyone should come from this deal. This is a clear upgrade and a solid move for the Orioles. This is the best 5 man rotation we’ve had in years. That bar isn’t very high but it’s good to see.
Good enough move by Baltimore, but they have to be the dumbest team in baseball. Keep Machado, don’t develop pitching, refuse to spend internationally. They will never keep up in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.
Disappointed in the Brewers for not getting one of the top starters. They had the money and they’re going with the on hand guys
Holland, Bautista, Phillips are the biggest names left?
So…. Holland is the only impact player left.
Most of these anti oriole comments come from the same failed AM radio host Nestor. Ignore him folks. Hasn’t had a nice thing to say about the home team in decades. Fans root for the team, not the owner.
I just love reading the haters comments. I will always love my team and until its official i will always believe they have a shot. Hell any team does.
He still has to pass the famed Baltimore Oriole pitchers physical !! Good luck with that. Stronger men have failed !!
Who?
The angels really needed to make this move if Heaney is hurt.
I don’t know why the Brewers went after him. After Yelich and Cain they just stopped improving their team
They were out of money and strapped. Stearns back was to the wall. He got Caine and hoped to roll the dice and trade one or two OF for a SP and it backfired. Simple as that.
If this is accurate I’m gonna be disappointed in my brewers. We needed Cobb. He would have been a perfect fit
Ubaldo V2.0
The cubs miss out again.
Darvish, Lester, Quintana, Hendricks, Chatwood.
4/60 seems like a lot for a guy who would be their sixth starter. Keep up the idiotic posts
Cobb has been a better pitcher than chatwood. The margin going forward is probably slim which would explain why they offered 3/38 for chatty and 3/42 for Cobb. They’re just fine.
Cobb much better then Chatwood. Now old Lester a flailing quintana an overpay run of the mill Darvish and an ailing henricks are going to be awful for the cubs and that bullpen is going to be so overworked by July. Sad year again for the cubbies.
Themed is just a swore Cards fan in denial forgive him and pay him no attention. Sad sad Cardinal fan. Never ends with Themed. Cubs got their guy. They for sure weren’t paying 60 million. Cubs don’t need a SP that’s for sure.
More like the Cardinals and Brewers missed out. Lol. Themed so scared and jelouse of the Cubs he trolls like a child everyday. Better get to bed the short bud comes early for school. Lol
Cubs missed out on Cobb lol. Who’s a funny troll
Why would he waste 3 years of his career wasting away in Bulletmore?
I hope Cobb is realizing he is making a mistake.
So the o’s rush into an empty room and bid against themselves up to a 4 year commitment on a guy no one else was even realy interested in?
Lol. Okay… and good luck with that!
Agreed. Sort of feels like That to me.
If I’m an mlb player, I’m not, I’m hiring Beverly Hills sports as my agent immediately. Great deal for Cobb and not entirely bad for the Orioles either.
3.4 bWAR average his last 3 full seasons in a tough division Even if he is only league average post surgery this is a good pickup. 4/50 maybe?
PLEASE FAIL THE PHYSICAL AND COME TO MILWAUKEE ON A 2 YEAR DEAL WE CANT WIN WITHOUT A ROTATION!
Brewers fans lol. Brewers had many chances this year to get a SP. they got a great OF then the GM does something stupid and gets a 5th OF dumping 80 million on Caine. Lol. Rolling the dice he would trade for a SP. After the season over that will go down as the biggest stupidest move in the Winter.
Well ain’t that something. Maybe the old O’s will compete.
Cobb should have taken the Cubs deal!
Woulda Coulda Shoulda!
Why? The Cubs offered 3/42 this is 4/60 it’s more.
4 years 60 m. The score confirmed it
Got his 4th year. I’d rather had the ring! But money is money!
18 million or MAYBE a WS ring? I know what I’m taking.
Laugh at Yankees fans saying our rotation blows. I’ll take it over yours anyway.
Severino>Bundy,
Gray>Cobb,
Tanaka>Guasman,
Sabathia and Tillman are close but Sabathia has the edge imo Montegomery<Cashner.