With the first game of the regular season just days away, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Are the Astros in or out on Snell?
It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend for Astros fans, as the club was reported as being in “serious pursuit” of reigning NL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell. It’s easy to see why Snell would appeal to them in particular, even beyond his pair of Cy Young Awards, as Houston’s starting pitching corps will be without not only Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia Jr. but also Justin Verlander and possibly Jose Urquidy to open the season. Southpaw Framber Valdez and right-hander Cristian Javier are the top healthy starters for the ’Stros, but both took steps back from their 2022 performance last season.
While adding Snell to the mix would be a surefire way to improve the club’s rotation mix dramatically, there’s reason for skepticism about the odds of the sides coming together. Reporting yesterday described the Astros as “long-shots” to ultimately land Snell, casting doubt on the club’s willingness to offer a deal in the $30MM range, which would push them past the third threshold of the luxury tax. Speculatively speaking, the club could pivot to a more affordable rotation arm still available on the market should they be unwilling to stomach Snell’s asking price. Both Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger are still unsigned.
2. Will Pham, Padres complete deal?
While the Padres’ 2023 Cy Young award winner appears to be headed out the door, another player could be poised for a reunion in San Diego. Veteran outfielder Tommy Pham is reportedly in talks with the club on a one-year deal with a salary in the $3MM to $4MM range. The 36-year-old makes plenty of sense for the Padres, who are set to enter the Seoul Series against the Dodgers later this week with Jose Azocar and Jurickson Profar as their top options in left field alongside top prospect Jackson Merrill in center and star Fernando Tatis Jr. in right.
Both Azocar and Profar were more than 20% below league average with the bat last year per wRC+. Installing Pham, who slashed an above average .256/.328/.446 in 129 games with the Mets and Diamondbacks, as the everyday left fielder would be a substantial upgrade. Even though San Diego is a clear fit for Pham’s services, they aren’t the only suitor for the veteran. The White Sox are reportedly involved in Pham’s market as well, where the veteran would presumably serve as a right-handed complement to Dominic Fletcher and Andrew Benintendi in the outfield corners.
3. Perez meeting with surgeon:
Marlins youngster Eury Perez is reportedly dealing with elbow soreness, setting the right-hander up to likely start the season on the injured list. Its a brutal blow to Miami’s rotation plans, particularly in conjunction with the shoulder issues that both Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera are dealing with elsewhere in the rotation mix. The number of injuries plaguing the club’s rotation seems to be spurring an all-hands-on-deck approach to the Opening Day rotation. Even more impactful for the club than the decisions on how to fill out the rotation behind Opening Day starter Jesus Luzardo will be Perez’s reported meeting with orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister, who performed right-hander Sandy Alcantara’s Tommy John surgery back in the fall.
Such a meeting isn’t necessarily an indication that Perez is slated for a similar fate, but it’s a clear sign that the Marlins are taking the bout of soreness in Perez’s elbow seriously. Perez impressed over 91 1/3 innings of work in his rookie season last year, pitching to a 3.15 ERA with a 4.11 FIP in 19 starts in just his age-20 season.
First game of the season is on Wednesday with all teams opening next week. Any starting pitcher signing today is still a month away from helping their teams. One-sixth of the season already lost. The price to sign Snell is extra high because it also means lost draft picks. $30MM for five months and lost draft picks all for the honor of having him likely walk after this season.
Likely walk, yes he’s definitely prone to giving up walks.
100%. This is why he’s still on the market. Boras needs to drop that opt out after this season. Nobody is going for that. And props for having some baseball knowledge that a month is gone. 5/6 months of Snell at most. Any ramping up faster will risk injury.
1. Astros are probably out on Snell, yet still the closest team to signing him.
2. Probably.
3. Eury is getting Tommy John, as it’s a near guarantee for almost every pitcher at this point.
I don’t think we know the Astros are for sure the closest to signing him. Their “heavy” pursuit doesn’t seem to heavy to me. They don’t want to sign him long term, yet they don’t want to give him a high AAV short term deal. It basically just sounds like their interest is that they’d like to sign him to a deal that benefits them. And that doesn’t really put them at good odds to sign him.
He’s evil because his sexual preferences differ from the currently accepted social norms.
Red Sox fan petition to ink him. 72 signed on.
change.org/p/mandate-boston-red-sox-to-sign-trevor…
It isn’t his sexual preference, it is the way he treats human beings. People only reference the straw that broke the camels back but that was one of 2 payouts for sexual assault and he also had multiple harassment suits against him, at least one from a minor. Teams don’t want to deal with that kind of pr
@bag it’s not even just prior assault claims either though. Even on the field he rubs people the wrong way with his antics. He doesn’t have an ounce of maturity in him. He had every right to clear his name of the one assault, but he acts as if that was the only thing that bothered teams about him.
As you said, that was only the straw that broke the camels back. Teams were willing to put up with his behavior before. But now they’ve seen that he is still the same type of person and don’t want to take the risk signing someone who they know will just cause one issue or another. Whether it’s on the field or off.
I’m actually more interested in Montgomery. He’s a solid pitcher, above-average, not super-old, coming off a couple of strong years. Not a star, but would make a lot of teams’ rotations better. He’s not worth what he was reported to be asking for, but he doesn’t come with draft-pick penalties, and three or four years at $70-90M, with maybe one opt-out–after two seasons, maybe, sounds reasonable. I don’t know if he will get anywhere near that, but he has value.
Problem is, I’m sure many teams would like to sign him for that. But even the latest reports have all still said that he’s seeking a 7 year deal. If he were willing to take a 3-4 year deal between 70-90, he’d of likely signed by now.
@The Voice of: Sign Trevor. Sign Trevor. Sign Trevor. Sign Trevor. Sign Trevor. Sign Trevor.
Is it just me, or does that sound like a broken record?
And who is “everyone” and where are they?
Or does it sound like one of the multiple burner accounts Bauer has used?
LOL!
That’s more than enough out of you. You should just lose your voice.
When Trevor is cloned, there will be plenty of Trevor to go around. No one will go hungry. Trevor for everyone. Trevor for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I’ll decide when it’s enough. Blue Baron needs more Trevor in his life. His sex life.
Hot take:
There is no excuse whatsoever for you to be hurt in Spring Training. You’ve been going 100% for not even a month. Anyone who needs surgery or an IL stint for anything at all showed up out of shape. Everyone who is hurt still gets dinged on rental cars because they’re not 26 years old, and young people do stupid things (and Gerritt Cole celebrated a CYA too much instead of staying in shape).
cold take, really
You know that people can get injured in many various ways at any given moment right? People have broken legs on home run celebrations, injured their leg from colliding with a first basement, been injured sliding, throwing a pitch, running into a wall, running into the tarp roll, being hit by a pitch, being struck by a line drive, colliding into another fielder to make a catch, even just merely running the bases. It’s not a “hot take”, it’s an “irrationally stupid” one
2 of three 3 questions here are really is Nightengale making stuff up again?