After asking 11 rival evaluators to rate the offseason’s top five free agent shortstops on a 1-5 grading scale, ESPN’s Buster Olney reveals the final order was Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Marcus Semien, Trevor Story, and Javier Baez, with Seager claiming 50 of a possible 55 points. Seager received six of the first-place votes (Correa received four and Semien one) due to his age and big left-handed bat, even though there was some question about his durability and how long he’ll be able to remain at the shortstop position.
All five players carry their share of question marks, which is what will make the shortstop market so fascinating to observe as the many teams in need of shortstop (and overall infield) help will be competing for these names at the top of the market. Unsurprisingly, the 11 evaluators cite the Yankees and Tigers as likely to land one of the big five shortstops, and teams like the Mariners, Rangers, Phillies, Cubs, and Angels could all be in the mix. In an additional detail on Semien, there is some feeling that he would like to remain with the Blue Jays, while other evaluators believe the Bay Area native would prefer to play with a team closer to home.
More on other pending or possible free agents…
- Brandon Belt and the Giants had some in-season negotiations about a contract extension, and while “talks didn’t go anywhere,” NBC Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic feels there is enough mutual interest between the two sides that Belt will return to San Francisco in 2022 and beyond. Though Belt turns 34 in April and battled multiple injuries, he has also been hitting at the highest level of his career — Belt has hit .285/.393/.595 with 38 home runs over 560 plate appearances since the start of the 2020 season. The Giants have already worked out an extension with the other member of “the Brandons,” locking up Brandon Crawford to a new two-year deal back in August.
- “The ship has sailed” on Kyle Seager returning to the Mariners, The Athletic’s Corey Brock opines as part of a reader mailbag. Brock feels both the team and the veteran third baseman are ready to move on, seemingly precluding any chance of either the M’s exercising their $20MM club option on Seager for 2022, or Seager being open to re-signing with Seattle at a lower price. Seager seemed to hint at a departure a few weeks ago, when he said that he hadn’t heard anything from the team about the option, and also noted that he hadn’t personally spoken with GM Jerry DiPoto in several years.
- Speaking of contract options, The Athletic’s James Fegan predicts the White Sox will decline their $6MM club option on Cesar Hernandez for next season. Hernandez hit only .232/.309/.299 in 217 PA after being acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline, so Fegan believes the Sox will be looking to upgrade at the keystone, rather than just retain Hernandez or hand the position to some combination of Leury Garcia, Danny Mendick or Romy Gonzalez. More offensive production will of course be welcome, but the White Sox might also prioritize a strong second base glove as a way of improving the club’s run-prevention efforts.
First
sorry, slow lunch break
One Seager leaves, and another enters?
I’d guess Kyle Seager is pretty fed up with Seattle. I’d assume he’d caution his brother against signing with the organization.
Andy – Why do you guess that? He was very emotional when he was removed from the game on the last day of their season.
It was still a big part of his life. The fans, teammates, etc. Arenado was emotional coming back to Colorado too.
Trevor Story was emotional when he took the field alone for an ovation at the last Rockies home game. Not Seager-level emotional, mind you, but it’s entirely possible to love the fans, your teammates and coaches, and the city and still be fed up with losing/poor front office communication/etc.
In the leaked recording of Kevin Mather’s rant, he mentioned that he was going to decline the option and it wasn’t even a tough decision.
My guess is that, while Seager will undoubtedly miss friends in the clubhouse and the fan base and the city of seattle, it seems (from the outside looking in) that Jerry Dipoto not acknowledging Seager for years (even a franchise guy in his contract year) and the words of Kevin Mather more or less sealed the deal on Seager returning (or his brother wanting to come to Seattle).
Personally, if the President of my organization spoke negatively about one of my players and it became national news, I would at minimum reach out to that player to apologize and let him know that Mather’s thoughts are not the organizations.
The fact that Dipoto didn’t even do that seems strange to me.
Yeah it’s strange to me too. When asked about it on the radio, Dipoto said he had in fact reached out to Seager after Mather’s comments and had been in contact with him multiple times in the preceding years. Regardless whose telling the truth, they obviously have a frayed relationship.
He did apologize to the team. Kelenic suggested it went over like a ‘fart in church’, but he addressed the team and media alike, saying it was embarrassing and suggested Mathers’ comments don’t reflect anything he and Scott have been trying to establish.
Kyle Seager is not all that good. 100 OPS+. League average WAR. Just kinda MEH.
Pads Fan: he was also top 3 or 5 in batting average and RBIs with RISP and also 2 outs. He was extremely clutch, that’s why he got so consistently in the beginning half of the lineup regardless of his overall average.
His gold glove is calling to laugh in your face. Seager is an above avg fielder so not that good is false. He had a down year as BA goes but a very good year in the field. Maybe you should watch him play and not cherry pick stats to back up your flawed assessment.
#17 in all of baseball this year in HR and RBIs. There is some value in that. Do I think we should resign Kyle? I don’t really. But he is far better than your ‘meh’
What happened to Hernandez that his offensive stats dropped so much after 7/31?!
Dont know, but trading Madrigal looks really silly now.
Why?
No power from Nicky
Hitting for power isn’t what makes a good hitter or player. He does everything else in the game at an average to above average rate, and is going to be a cornerstone for the Cubs when they’re back in contention.
Yeah, who wants a 25 year old with 5 or so years of control at 2B thats hit .317 / .358 / .406 in 324 ABs as their lead off hitter these days. Nobody needs a high OBP anymore in todays analytic driven world.
Not like analytics are why people value OBP
You don’t need to have power to be a very good player! Madrigal hits for immense contact, hardly ever strikes out, is an excellent baserunning and plays very good defense..plus he’s a spark plug on and off the field..To trade him for a power reliever, who is the shell of himself cries of an Extreme Desperate Front Office who was trying to make any kind of drastic move..The Sox will never find another talented “Old School” 2nd Baseman the likes of Madrigal anytime in the near future…
You don’t need to have power to be a very good player! Madrigal hits for immense contact, hardly ever strikes out, is an excellent baserunner and plays very good defense..plus he’s a spark plug on and off the field..To trade him for a power reliever, who is the shell of himself cries of an Extreme Desperate Front Office who was trying to make any kind of drastic move..The Sox will never find another talented “Old School” 2nd Baseman the likes of Madrigal anytime in the near future…
You are right. He sounds like an awful player.
He doesn’t hit home runs but to say “no power” isn’t true. He slugged .425, and though that’s not great, it’s fine. He is a contact hitter at a time in baseball when that is needed to offset all of the free swinging strikeout-prone hitters. After 303 ABs his BA is .317. That works.
Nick was playing great this year before he got hurt again. He was hurt coming out of college and 2 years with the White Sox. Can he hold up for 162 games? His defense was getting better but not near the Gold Glove D Sox fans thought they were getting. Cubs got the better side of this trade but his hit style will lead to easy outs and inning killing double plays. I hope he has better health so he can become the best player on the Cubs.
There’s more to hitting than power, believe it or not. Would you rather have a guy that hits .350 with 1-2 homers a year, if he’s lucky, or a guy like Joey Gallo or Jorge Soler that has good power but strikes out every other AB?
Id be more concerned about his glove work more than his bat.
Madigral got hurt twice while running the bases with separating his shoulder in 2020 while where missed a significant amount of games to off-season surgery and tore his hamstring while trying to beat out a throw to first base in 2021 that led to season ending surgery. Both if his injuries where from running the bases!
Lol. The only reason they even traded for Hernandez was that Madrigal was hurt. Madrigal is a good get for a rebuilding team but he’s proven to be unreliable for a win-now club.
How does tearing his hamstring prove that he’s unreliable for a win-now team? Do you people read the things you type before hitting send?
So I guess you wouldnt want Acuna because he got hurt.
Oh my aching head…
What do you mean by “you people?” Racist.
You’re trying to equate Ronald Acuña with Nick Madrigal? No wonder your head aches lol.
I can’t tell if you’re trolling or just sensitive, but you’re putting words in my mouth. Some of the comments on these sites really make it seem like people put no thought into them before hitting send; it has nothing to do with you or anyone personally, so I don’t really know what you’re getting at here.
And my original point still stands: how does tearing a hamstring prove that he’s unreliable? He’s about a 3.5 win player if you extrapolate his career production to a full season. Those guys don’t just come out of nowhere.
You’re asking how the guy who couldn’t finish the season for a second straight year (his only two MLB seasons) could be considered unreliable or shouldn’t be counted on?
“He’s about a 3.5 win player if you extrapolate his career production to a full season.”
Great. Hasn’t happened yet so that’s a big if. When he plays a full season and you no longer have to “extrapolate,” feel free to dial your asinine attitude up a notch lol.
His first season was in a 60-game anomaly, so even if he had played the whole year he still wouldn’t have a full season’s worth of at bats yet. He’s a good player that just had a bad injury this year.
Point is, trading him for Kimbrel was an awful idea.
He went to the south side.
Seager is just absolute dude. Guy will probably be moved off SS as he ages but that bat right now and the first few years of his contract at SS, will look beautiful
His bat will age as well. The remaining 3-4 years of his deal will look ugly.
That’s literally almost every single mega deal 10+ years in length
The 11 evaluators think the Cubs might be a landing spot for one of the top shortstops. The Chicago Cubs? No chance, the Cubs won’t spend any real money due to the fact ownership won the World Series once and now it’s all about buying as much of the neighborhood as possible and the team is secondary to them at best
True story.
There was a third Seager in pro ball. I saw him play for the Clinton lumber Kings.
Don’t care where Marcus Semien ends up as long as it’s in the AL, and yes it’s for selfish fantasy baseball reasons. 🙂
Even after putting up 46 bombs, Semien still can’t get any respect. I get it, Correa and Seager are younger, but who cares if they can’t stay on the field consistently?
I want the Phillies to sign Semien. He was their preferred target this offseason, but it didn’t happen.
You might even get away with only signing a five year contract. Any normal year I would say competition for his services push an offer to six years, maybe even 7 if more than one team is pushing hard.
I’d be happy with signing Semien. Honestly, perfect world, I’d like to see the Phils sign two of the SS FAs – one for SS, and one for 3B. Swing Bohm to LF or first, Hoskins to the potential DH role, use Gregorius as a floater.
That’s a perfect world. Not sure the budget would be there for that sort of move.
I wouldn’t be shocked but I would be depressed! That offense would be insane
Ideally he remains a 2B.
Hernandez had the same numbers for Cleveland this year as he did once coming to the Sox, what makes the Sox think numbers would change with their trade, they knew what they were getting.
His OPS dropped by 130 points. He wasn’t the same hitter at all.
Yes I see that, my bad. His OBP was just about the same.
Not true
And HR’s were non existent
I doubt the Sox knew they were getting a gigantic hole in their lineup.
I’d offer Belt a similar extension to the one Crawford signed. Tough to pay someone who can’t stay healthy more than that, even though it seems like all his injuries are of the “freak” variety.
You got that right. Any team signing Belt should know you need to have a solid Plan B who can expect to get 300 or so ABs a season while Belt is on the IL.
Jeez…Why do you post such ignorant opinions? Belt has only had one season with less than 300 ABs. And that was early in his career when the FO was regularly sending him up and down. The Giants already have a back up plan. Buster and Bart have put in a lot of time at 1st base.
What’s ignorant about it the guy is always hurt. I wouldn’t touch him if I were the Giants, they of all teams should know better. Also he averages under 400 AB a season so while you’re correct your argument is still silly. You do realize that your first baseman should play an entire season right? It’s funny that the Giants would have to rely on their catchers to fill in for their oft injured 1B.
Ummm…Where did you learn math? He has only 3 seasons under 400 abs. You can toss out 2020 because of COVID. And the FO kept sending him up and down his first few seasons. So, you can cut that down to one. Besides, come up with a player that would replace him. I’m sure your choice would be a step backwards.
Just dropping in, no catcher filled in on the Giants this season at 1B. One of the reasons for there success this year was there excellent depth at the big league level. Flores, Ruf, and Bryant late in the season filled in at first often. Ruf himself was good in that role and could be the fill in guy if Belt leaves. Flores is not a natural 1B but will likely get his cheap option picked up, so he’s versatility will be useful again.
I’d actually say they should sign him for less AAV. Crawford is a pretty consistent guy in terms of health and fielding, which makes this a reasonable deal. Belt is hurt all the time, but still has pretty decent fielding
Brandon Belt numbers very deceiving Mark….how can y0u add together both 2020 AND 2021 to make his stats sound better to help shill for a new multi year contract based on tainted offensive numbers (.151 games total between the 2 years)
…Belt only played 97 games this year and the knock on his signing a multi year contract at age 34 and getting HUGE money are his injuries limitations on games played? As Clueless Joe says all the time…”Come on man”!
I’m sure front offices looking to offer Belt a contract know these numbers, rocky
Mark used the last 2 years to show how Belt has upped his game over that span. He’s not trying to “help shill for a new multi year contract…”. That idea is absurd. Belt has been an above average hitter, and an elite fielder for his career. Over his 11 year career, he’s had only one subpar season with the bat, and that was 2019 when he had a slightly below average 97 OPS+.
Mark doesn’t mention it, but the increase in offense over the last 2 seasons, is probably due to changes in the ballpark making it much less punitive for LHHs. But even when the park was very unfriendly to Belt’s bat, he posted a 120 OPS+, 20% better than league average, and that includes 2019.
But the thing I question most of those that want to see Belt walk is, who is better to replace him with? It makes no sense to say let some guy go without any kind of idea who the alternative is. That kind of thinking would only make the team worse.
@tad2b13 Belt’s increase in power might be helped by the reconfiguration of the stadium. But, I think has more to do with the overall change in the organizational hitting philosophy. They have 3 hitting coaches. And Posey and Crawford credit those coaches for their success this past season.
Giants74:
You have a point, and I’m sure there’s not one single reason for Belt’s increase in production. The coaches undoubtedly helped, but the increase did coincide with the stadium changes prior to the 2020 season.
And while Crawford’s revamped swing was well documented, there’s been nothing I’ve seen about Belt in that regard. Posey’s resurgence has to have been aided by his health. His struggles in 2018-2019 from the hip injury/surgery are also well documented.
While the relocation of the bullpens to the OF has helped. I think the biggest factor is from shutting off the arcade. The wind used to blow straight into RF through the arcade. Mike Krukow voiced similar thoughts in a broadcast.
Statcast had Oracle at a park factor of 90 for LHHs, and 92 for RHHs in 2019 before the changes. Skipping the odd 2020 season, in 2021 it jumped to 98 for RHHs with an even bigger jump to 100 for LHHS. So it appears the changes helped both lefties and righties, but helped the lefties a lot more. I doubt that big a jump can be entirely credited to improved hitting coaching.
those are 2 different discussions – one is performance and the other is result. if you look at his other offensive stats like launch angle, exit velo, etc those are all up and that is the performance boost that has helped him everywhere – things like the 29 homers, slg increase and such are the results because of the configuration that allowed a lot of his normal singles to become homers.
@mister guy Quit while you are behind. Do you really believe baseball players are robots? Players continue to their swing. The Giants organizational hitting philosophy is to add more loft to your swing and reduce your strike zone. Belt is very patient hitter. Those factors add up to a lot of home runs.
Obviously the evaluators were looking at batting stats, and ignoring fielding stats. I could understand that for a corner position, but not for a critical defensive position like SS.
Seager is below average with the glove. Fangraphs has him at -5 DRS for his career at SS. That’s not terrible, but Statcast gives him -17 OAA since 2016. By comparison Correa has a +68 DRS, and a +27 OAA.
Seager’s bat is better, but not nearly enough to offset the subpar defense. Seager has a 132 wRC+ to Correa’s 128. In OPS+, again Seager is only slightly better with a 131, to Correa’s 127.
And as to the knock on Correa for missing games, they’ve both had 7 year careers, and Correa has played 752 games to Seager’s 636, 116 more games. Maybe I’m missing something these evaluators know, but I would easily take Correa over Seager.
Its Buster Olney. Take everything he says with a grain of salt.
Seager debuted 3 months after Correa in 2015. That doesn’t explain the full 116 game difference but accounts for a large portion of them
Thanks, I should have looked deeper into the reason for the difference, and those 3 months would have made it closer. But the point still stands, when people criticize Correa for missing games, yet Seager seems to get a pass.
They’ve both definitely had problems staying on the field at times. Correa has stayed healthy lately though and Seager only had the one serious injury in 2018. I say that because the broken hand he suffered from a HBP earlier this year shouldn’t be a concern going forward
Seager missed a big portion for TJS. Not exactly injury prone. That’s a very isolated injury.
I never said there weren’t reasons that Seager missed games. But in context of repeated posts by others, implying that Correa is not going to be worth his contract, because he supposedly can’t stay on the field, and yet Seager will be, is what I was trying to address. A history of injury does not mean there’s a certainty of injury in the future.
Belt’s latest injury was a broken thumb from a HBP, and yet there are numerous posts not wanting him back, because he’s supposedly always injured
Ah, my apologies, I misread the inference. I understand what you’re saying. A lot of people classify Seager as a high-risk for injury too, which I obviously disagree with. I do think both men will have to move to third eventually, because of their body types.
LET’S GO BRANDONS!!!!!
12.6 WAR is not as good as 8.7 WAR? Seager is supposed to be better than Correa? WTH?
Oh wait, its Buster Olney. He polled 11 people he found at an AFL game at Camelback Ranch that were not wearing Dodger’s jerseys. “Rival evaluators” Never says they work in baseball so he is not lying.
Seager missed nearly a full season in 2018
Over their 7 year careers Correa has played 116 more games than Seager. That’s not enough to account for the difference in their WAR.
Leury Garcia is also a free agent.
I think they should resign Leury. He’s versatile and reliable off the bench. He obviously shouldn’t start anywhere but has proven to be a useful utility guy. Rick Hahn once said that the team would spend and be aggressive when the time is right. Well, I’d say this off season is the time. Gotta convince Jerry to spend so they can pursue Semien and Castellanos. A trade for Cedric Mullins would be nice as well. However, I’d be surprised if any of those players are with the Sox next season.
I’d MAYBE take Leury back if he signs a short deal for peanuts, but otherwise I’d rather see them spend on legit players for both 2B and RF.
Hand the keys to Romy Gonzalez if you can’t find a bona fide significant upgrade. I like his potential to both hit for power and get on base.
The part of this article that jumped out at me was Kyle Seager saying he hadn’t personally spoken to Jerry DiPoto in several years. I know there is a chain of command, but you’d think they would have crossed paths at some point.
Yeah that’s really a situation where you’d almost have to be hiding from the guy not to see him lol.
Yankees need Seager at short and as a lefty in the lineup. So naturally Cashman will pick up Simmons
Wonder if the White Sox could be looking at Semien or Baez to play 2B
Semien at 2B and Castellanos in RF would make their batting order insane. Not sure who the best relievers on the market are or how much it’d take to lock one down, but coming away with these two on offense and a solid setup man would be awesome. Not really as interested in Baez, but wouldn’t despise it if he signed.
Daylight Time, mlb trade rumors. Standard Time doesn’t begin until next month
Wait til Magrical returns from injury next season…oops.
The results of the Kimbrel trade are almost final. In order for the Cubs to lose this trade, I think Madrigal would almost have to retire. Kimbrel will cost the WS ~ $21M for is 1.2 seasons, and he has a -0.2 bWAR right now. Even if Madrigal retired today, there is an argument to be made that the Cubs own the trade.
There is a pretty good argument to be made that the WS shouldn’t even pick up his $16M option to be a setup guy.
I would love to see the Braves sign Semien but none of these guys are going to be on the Braves realistic list. I’m sure several commenters would reasonably respond with Dansby Swanson but I think I’m just about in the sell category on him.
We keep waiting for Swanson to emerge but I think we can stop waiting now. He’s demonstrating who he is: a roughly league average bat and a glove that ranges wildly from almost gold glove
2018 9 DRS/ 5.3 UZR
2020 9 DRS/ 0.2 UZR.
To dumpsterfire
2019 -2 DRS / -6.4 UZR
2021 -5 DRS / 1.1 UZR
Again, this simply won’t happen. Swanson isn’t on that level but what he provides the Braves is production on the cheap. I’m not arguing for this approach or even like it. It’s simply something you except as a Braves fan. I don’t even mean to complain. This is the way MOST teams do it.
I think the Braves resources could be much better used upgrading areas other than SS. As to your stats, I like DRS, but I think UZR is almost useless. While it was probably more germane before, increased use of defensive shifts has really hurt its viability. Fangraphs themselves have said single seasons of UZR can be misleading, and that at least 2 seasons should be looked at
If you look at Statcast’s Outs Above Average, Swanson is ranked fairly high, much higher than Semien in fact. They give Swanson 15, and Semien a -26, which would indicate they don’t see Semien as very good with the glove at all. To me Semien is much more appealing at 2B or 3B.
Every single time I see Seager hit a bomb in the postseason, it’s so easy to envision 2022 postseason in pinstripes….
Go Yankees, Pinstriped Pride!!!
The White Sox have much more to worry about than their 2nd baseman, Pretty much every player disappeared against tough teams during the season and in the playoffs… Im tired of people making the excuse of ‘well they ran into a good team’ Well, last I checked when you have a team, and org, claiming WS or bust then you need to beat… yknow.. good teams.. or at least compete against them, and do so.. yknow.. regardless of where they play.. I think the Sox have a heart/will issue and Im not sure changing a player here or there changes that.