In a piece for the The Athletic, Matt Gelb recaps the frantic lead-up to the Phillies’ signing of right-handed reliever Corey Knebel, which included an unfortunately timed trip to Mexico and a number of insightful quotes from Knebel himself. One particular quote of note is that Knebel and Philadelphia “entertained” a two-year contract before ultimately settling on a one-year, $10MM guarantee.
While Knebel is the presumptive closer for his new club at this time, neither he nor president Dave Dombrowski have confirmed as such. Accordingly, Knebel says he’s using the personal risk of a one-year contract as motivation to regain the form that made him one of the game’s most dominant arms from 2017-2018. As the “$10MM” portion of his latest contract indicates, however, Knebel may not need much more motivation to regain elite status at the back of a pen. After all, a newfound reliance on his curveball led to the right-hander spinning 25 plus innings of 2.45 ERA ball with the Dodgers last season.
While health and its corresponding impact on effectiveness is always a question with pitchers who have undergone Tommy John surgery, the Phillies front office was surely pleased by Knebel demonstrating some of the best control he’s had in his career. Further dampening health concerns were Knebel’s strikeout abilities, which were down during the season from his own lofty 2017-2018 heights, but were still solidly above average and exploded in the playoffs— in 5+ innings the right-hander struck out 11 batters against just one walk.
In other news out of the National League…
- The Mets have been one of baseball’s busiest teams during the lockout thus far, and have been the runaway winner in activity over the past 48 hours. The team already reeled in its biggest coaching fish of the offseason back in December when they hired Buck Showalter, but they have since announced plans to hire a number of other coaches around him. Among the recent coaches set to join the Mets coaching staff are first base coach Wayne Kirby, third base coach Joey Cora, and hitting coach Eric Chávez, who was successfully wooed away from the crosstown Yankees. Mike Puma of the New York Post explains (via Twitter) the reason none of these coaching additions have yet been made official. Puma states that every prospective hire is receiving a “very thorough” background check, which is likely delaying an official announcement from the club on this trio of reported coaches. It remains to be seen if this thoroughness is delaying the hire of the team’s alleged high-profile mystery bench coach as well. That the club is being methodical in its search for new club personnel should register as a shock to no one, with several high-profile members enjoying unceremonious ends to their New York tenures in recent years.
- Bob Nightengale reports that the Reds have signed center fielder Lorenzo Cedrola to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. A signee out of Venezuela with some prospect pedigree, Cedrola was traded by Boston to Cincinnati back in 2018 for international bonus pool space. The 23-year-old will now look to continue his work in the Reds farm system, where he’s fresh off his first Triple-A promotion and an overall .315/.354/.458 season. His 10 home runs across 115 games last season easily represent a career high, though Cedrola’s 10 for 18 showing on the basepaths could use some work if he’s to crack the Reds’ uncertain outfield mix in 2022.
They why are the Mets leaking the names before the background check have been completed?
It might not be the Mets. Family members and friends leak stuff all the time.
I have to say the fact Knebel preferred a 1 year deal makes me personally trust him more. It means he believes he will be worth more on the free agent market after he shows what he can do. I don’t always trust the guys who demand multi-year deals when the one year deal has a higher AAV. If you are worth it then prove it next year and you will get more money overall.
Kimbrel and Keuchel did the opposite of each other a few years ago. Keuchel took the one year deal and Kimbrel demanded the multi-year contract. It paid off for both of them. Keuchel proved himself and got a much bigger contract. Kimbrel was terrible and would never have made that much if he hit the market again the next offseason. That’s why he took as much upfront money as possible. He didn’t believe he could back it up and earn more when he hit the free agent market again. He was right.
Call me old fashioned but I believe in the players who believe in themselves. Guys like Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson and Marcell Ozuna bet on themselves and it paid off because they did a good job. That’s what Knebel is doing.
I don’t understand why Michael Conforto isn’t doing the same thing. He’s coming off a bad season and if he proves himself next season he would make a lot more on the free agent market. It looks like he doesn’t trust himself to do that because he doesn’t want to prove he can bounce back before he gets a multi-year deal. It’s like he doesn’t believe his stock will ever be higher than it is right now. That’s scary because he was so disappointing last season that other teams would be justified in expecting more of the same. If Conforto doesn’t believe he will be good enough to earn a bigger contract after next season, why should other teams believe he will be?
I agree with you in sentiment the problem in Conforto’s case is optics … he is 29 which makes multi year deals sound / look better as he signed it when he is in his 20’s and probably a better chance at 4 or 5 yr deal .. the second it moves to 30 short of you being top 10 player anything over 3-4 years is questioned and microscoped.
This year also not as many outfielders out there except Bryant and the rest are really off the board at this point. Personally i think he should have accepted the QO because that pick is really going to hurt him. I see why he did it but i dont think it was his best route.
Please, Hammer. Don’t hurt ’em.
I’d guess that Conforto: 1) wanted to get away from NYC and / or the Mets; and 2) his agent – Scott Boras – will need some time to see what the market has to offer him.
I don’t jump to conclusions in the offseason about any team, any one, or any thing. Everything plays itself out. Patterns can be picked up on, but in time even they many change.
The amount of transactions that happen in MLB dwarf any of the other professional team sports, and with expanded playoffs and possibly the discontinuation of giving teams a draft choice when losing a player to free agency, the amount of transactions will be going even higher.
By mid-May to early June every year a good portion of what seemed obvious in the offseason no longer holds.
“Guys like Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson and Marcell Ozuna…”
Here’s what’s interesting about that Hammer…..
All those players got dare mmaaannnneeee. One was traded before the contract expired, one was suspended, and one is overpaid with their fans complaining about him on here. All were bad contracts.
As for Kimbrel and Keuchel – both wound up with big bucks. Today the White Sox would have to include a prime controlled player to package with them in order to get back a decent set-up guy and a #4-5 starter that are making reasonable salaries.
The offseason is a month old and you’ve determined Conforto hasn’t signed because he thinks he’s washed up? Cruz didn’t have a choice but to sign one year deals, it had nothing to do with betting on himself, the dude is 200 years old.
And why are every one of your comments longer than the original post, and always involve some elaborate plot going on that only you’re aware of?
Conforto should have taken that $18 million QO. He won’t get that on a one-year deal, and should he get a multiple year deal, the best he can hope for is maybe $15 million per and three years.
Whatever it turns out to be, there will be no need to hold a charity beef and beer night for him.
Let’s have the Beef and Beer night anyway…
Conforto is a different case because he has the pick attached to him which makes signing him to a one year deal very unlikely. Most smart teams aren’t going to give up that value of the pick to sign a guy for one year when the value of that pick is worth more long term.
How these guys don’t have deals in place before they decline the QO is beyond me. Agents just doing are terrible job too focused on bashing the cba because their client has to take generational wealth of 19.2 million for a season.
@iverbure: That’s the scary thing for any team who signs Conforto. Once you consider the draft compensation they give up and everything else, it only makes sense for Conforto to turn down the QO for a multi-year deal if he’s going to be bad again next season. Otherwise, taking the higher AAV one year deal and then hitting the market off a better season with no compensation attached would have made him much more money. The decision he’s making right now only pays off for him is he’s bad again next season. Why would any team want to give up draft compensation to sign a player who is betting on himself to not be very good next year?
I get he turns 30 and in theory that could lower what kind of contract he would get compared to now when he’s 29. Teams aren’t that stupid though. The draft compensation has to be worth a lot more than getting Conforto 1 year earlier. He still would have made more money next offseason if he had a good year next year. Josh Donaldson got $92 million at age 34 so if Conforto is good next year no one will undercut his contract just because he’s 30.
I wouldn’t want to sign a player who is setting his finances up as if he expects to be a poor player next season. Especially considering he was a poor player last season and the team would have to give up high draft picks just to do it. I really think Conforto is doing this because he was a bad player last season and he expects the same next season. He figures if it’s only 1 bad year he can pretend it was a fluke but if it happens 2 years in a row no one will think he’s going to turn it around. If Conforto thought he was going to turn it around next year he would be betting on himself and taking the QO. Since he’s not I don’t see why any other team should.
I think Conforto is going to be this year’s Keuchel or Kimbrel. Keuchel clearly should have taken the QO his contract year because he had to settle for a 1 year deal worth only $13 million after declining it. He also didn’t sign until after his draft compensation was removed and that doesn’t happen until the season if half over. Conforto may end up getting a multi-year deal but if he does I think it may be similar to when Kimbrel got his. I think Conforto might not even get signed until after the draft is over in June or July just so whichever team signs him gets to keep their top draft picks.
So the New York Times can search their social media and find some 14 year old dirt on them?
The fact that the comments section is closed r/t the NYT and the Athletic tells me everything I need to know.
Any guess as to why they were closed?
The last I checked it, the comments were degenerating into political comments and were getting nastier the longer the thread was active.
Liberals are thinned skinned?
We’re all pink on the inside
Before my wife, that was my dating philosophy. Lol
Before your wife, that was my dating philosophy too
Cey Hey, I love your sense of humor and your baseball takes are typically really strong, but I would cool it with your race war rhetoric.
Journalism gets a very bad rap anymore, but I can see why. So many news sites are very biased one way or another. It’s all because of the political tension in the US right now. It’s a very “you’re either with me or against me” mentality. In life in general, things aren’t black-and-white. Sometimes there are now heroes of a story. The line between what is good and what is bad isn’t always clean cut, no matter how much journalism tries to make it seem.
Ovbisously, I’m not here to support anyone who participates in any riots of any sort. But we all need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and re-think our mentality to when it comes to politics.
He’s sadly insufferable about this, it’s borderline comical if it wasn’t so intrusive
Just what we need, our sports news peppered with liberal bias. God forbid any player is caught wearing a MAGA hat. He’ll be skewered.
” It’s all because of the political tension in the US right now.”
I would take that one step further and say “it’s all about the money”
Cey Hey, stick to baseball because you seem to be very knowledgeable there. That same attack on democracy that has been proven to have CIA and FBI plants and police that removed barricades and opened doors while shooting an innocent lady? Like I said, stick to baseball
Well, judging by comments below, people got their little feelings hurt. It also seems as if the mods lean that way and don’t want to hear differing opinions.
That’s illustrates why I believe they should have left comments open. Now they’ve spilled into this thread. Threads should rarely ever be closed, but unfortunately we are living in a society of increased suppression.
I understand why they want to close it, but I also kind of agree with what you are saying. Yes, they don’t want people to start political shouting matches on a baseball blog. I totally understand that and why they close the comments. I really don’t think that’s “supression”. They just want to limit the hostility on the site. However, I do think that leaving it open keeps the comments to just one article/thread.
@mlb225, maybe suppression isn’t the correct word. I was struggling with an alternative that expressed my concern. Tim and company have a difficulty job at times with comments, but I believe it’s only difficult because they take on the extra role of shutting down comments. Let the animals go crazy in the zoo, but limit them to that thread.
Someone had a good suggestion in another thread. If they shut a thread down when it gets out of hand, leave the comments visible. That way people arriving later will see what caused it to be shut down and we can see who were the instigators.
When I first checked, they were open….assume it got nasty…..?
Knebel, please take your 10$ come in and pitch your heiney off for your next contract and Philly fans will love you…….
RIP The Athletic. Now it will be a woke piece of trash
Play,
You zany madcap! Would a purchase by The Daily Stormer been more to your liking?
I would tentatively agree with Play: what was once a strong, independent source of good quips and pertinent info will now be a watered down “Sports” page dominated by a cash-cow conglomerate. BR went downhill once CNN was in charge and I fear the same for The Athletic. Oh well, sticking to Trade Rumors for the foreseeable future isn’t all that gloom and doom…
Besides, no one in NYC buys the NYT for its Sports Section. It’s usually two or three pages long at best. Imagine that, NYC has 3 hockey teams, 2 NBA teams, 2 MLB teams and 2 NFL teams, yet they can compress what fans need to know in so little space. Hope they don’t ruin The Athletic.
It’s not going to change in the slightest. I don’t think people understand how buyouts work. Anyway enough politics. How about baseball? Oh yeah. There is no baseball. Ummm. I like turtles.
Is that you, Sal Governale?
The Turtles were an excellent band…but I am pretty sure they were a fringe group…either right or left wing…
@player…that site has been woke for several years now.
I was a subscriber but the America killing communism was loud and clear in word and in action. post a differing opinion, you were ghost banned. too many of the stories leaned left as far as possible.
I canceled and I am happier.
For some reason there are no comments allowed on the story about the crappy New York Times buying the Athletic.
Couple of good ex-Philly writers on there. Dropped my subscription today.
Why can’t news be just “mostly” news anymore. I am 50 and a happy GenX, so am used to a slant or two with my news….But man in the past decade it’s more than 50% opinion….
Not being crusty, but how about printing the facts in the first part on an article and then after that offer opinions…I’d be cool with that….
But plenty of complaints by a bunch of menopausal old ladies. Get a grip, guys.
Comments got political and violent
Why are certain posts closed for comments?
Maybe MLBTR should just do an occasional post on some obscure minor league general manager and throw something, anything at all, political in it. It would be like in Young Frankenstein, whenever they said the name “Frau Blucher: and the horses would start to neigh and whinny. That would set us all going nuts, but just on that post, and the substantive columns about serious baseball news could be discussed in a baseball manner.
Just a thought.
The Mets and Phillies will win 100 games in 2022…
Combined.
They won 152 combined in 2021.
Who’s to say that 80 of the 100 won’t go to the Phillies?
If they’re talking about a “bombshell” mystery bench coach, it leads me to believe it’s a recent former player. Adam Jones is a possibility if he retires and comes back from Japan due to his connection to Buck. Curtis Granderson’s name has also come up. However, the biggest pick for Met fans would be David Wright.
Lots of speculation about that & the names you mentioned have been named before. But I have a feeling it won’t be much of a bombshell at all & Mets fans will be disappointed & all the Mets haters will have another field day
The bombshell was Eric Chavez. It already happened.
@ Cey Hey;
Politics are like bacteria in the mouth – it’s healthy to have some, and unhealthy not to have any. On the other hand, having nothing but bacteria can kill the mouth….or a culture.
This tactic of branding people with extremist labels is not a sign of a healthy culture. It’s surely not enjoyable to live in that environment.
We’re all individuals, all unique in our ways, and always changing. Team sports are about working through issues, competing and succeeding. MLB FO’s learned many decades ago that a player on their roster that can help the team win is all that matters.
I follow MLB because I want to see the best players compete on the field, as well as the FO’s compete to build the best teams. It’s a joy. One of many wonderful gifts of being alive and living in the greatest country in the history of the world.
Sadly the problem with American politics now is that people treat them just like sports, and follow blindly their party of choice.
Nobody bothers finding out what candidates stand for, or even what their party does.
It’s all about winning and owning the other side.
Pols stand for themselves. Period! They would tell you the moon is made of green cheese if it would get them votes.
Right, I had to go Independent myself. Both R’s and D’s have too many extremist in their parties. I don’t see why people want to hate half of the country. Find common ground people, and work on the issues that divide us. No matter which side of the aisle you’re on you live in a fantastic country.
@SoCalBrave, quite true. Politics is like Yankees vs. Red Sox, without the good natured ribbing. In the end, Yankee and Red Sox fans love baseball. I wonder if these political extremists that populate both parties love their country? I don’t believe they do.
There is such a thing as the wrong direction, in one’s life as in politics and It’s not always a case of good intentions. There are people out there that have bad, VERY bad intentions and it’s more than a bit naive to assume it’s simply a matter of finding common ground. You are correct though, that the solution is not among the unprincipled leadership of the D’s and R’s, so you might want to consider the L’s.
Cedrola looks like a nice piece to hold onto. CIN seems to have a lot of 4th OF types that might be starting quality at some point and could be nice trade pieces.
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