As we stand around the Hot Stove waiting for Giancarlo and Shohei, a few moves took place that could be significant down the line:
The Oakland A's signed Yusmeiro Petit to a 2 yr/$10 M contract with a club option for a 3'rd season at $5.5 M. Petit is coming off a terrific season with the Angels in which he posted a 2.76 ERA in 91.1 IP with a K/9 of 9.95 and a BB/9 of just 1.77. Petit made just 1 Start. The rest of the innings call came in 59 appearances out of the bullpen. There is an interesting article on Fangraphs showing that the two relievers acquired by the A's so far this offseason, Petit and Emilio Pagan, have a unique combination of K-BB/9 AND Batters Faced/Appearance. Only Chad Green of the Yankees had higher numbers in both categories last year. It looks like the A's have bought into the idea of 5 inning starters and multi-inning relievers being a winning combination. Oh, and congrats to Petit who deserves the payday.
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The Angels made a trade for RP Jim Johnson of the Braves. Johnson has had his ups and downs as a closer/reliever. He struggled last year to a 5+ ERA and lost his Closer role with the Braves. His contract calls for him to be paid $5 M next season which the Angels pick up in full. The Braves also send $1.2 M in International Bonus Pool money to the Angels which the Angels will use to pursue Shohei Ohtani or some of the international free agents from the Braves fiasco. This deal is an inneresting way to get bonus pool money and demonstrates just how desperate teams are to acquire it to dangle in front of Ohtani despite zero evidence that money will be a factor in his decision regarding who to sign with.
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The White Sox made a significant free agent signing, bringing in Welington Castillo to be their primary catcher. Castillo had a solid season with the Orioles last year hitting .282 with 20 HR's. He was particularly strong in the second half hitting over .300 with 12 of his dingers. He was the catcher for my fantasy team down the stretch and was a plus for my team. Castillo has a reputation as being a poor pitch framer, but other aspects of his defensive game are solid including a 49% rate for throwing out base stealers. As a primary catcher in a hitter-friendly ballpark, Castillo should be a solid fantasy option at catcher. He has averaged 26.5 HR's/600 PA's over his last 3 seasons. He had turned down a mutual option for 1 year/$7 M with the Orioles and now gets 2 years/$15 M with an $8 M club option for 2020 with a $50 K buyout.
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The Blue Jays acquired IF Aledmys Diaz from the Cardinals for minor leaguer JB Woodman. Diaz made a big splash in his MLB debut in 2016 but struggled in 2017, got demoted to the minors and was replaced by Paul Dejong at SS or the Cards. Woodman was a 2'nd round draft pick in 2016 who struggled at class A level in 2017.
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There were several inneresting non-tenders yesterday at the deadline for teams to offer contracts to arbitration eligible players including Matt Adams, Jace Peterson and Danny Santana of the Braves and Hector Rondon of the Cubs. The Giants tendered contracts to all of their remaining arbitration-eligible guys. Tim Federowicz had previously been released. The Giants did not tender a contract to Albert Suarez even though he is not arbitration eligible. That move opened up 1 spot on the 40 man roster. The Giants have the 2'nd selection in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. Could it be they are planning to take someone with it?
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Oh, Rule 5 draft klaxon! Second pick, and the Giant's OF and Bullpen needs means maybe they grab someone and keep him. Maybe. Just really rare for the Rule 5 draft to elicit much attention.
ReplyDeleteNew rumors this morning said the Marlins accepted both SF and STL's offers for Stanton so it is just up to him to decide. This afternoon there were rumors that Ohtani has chosen SF and Seattle as finalists for his services. Maybe the two of them can meet and decide to come here together.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about what it would take to convince Ohtani to play for the Giants. Everyone is putting together their sales pitches to this kid and maybe we have the best chance for him to have an immediate impact with a spot in the rotation, a spot in the outfield, and a spot in the middle of the order for his bat. He wants to be on the West Coast and not necessarily with a team that has already had a Japanese star (which is why I'm glad he is choosing between us and Seattle apparently).
I was thinking it would be interesting to hear what others on here had to say about how they would accommodate this kid and get the most out of his abilities every week. He wants to pitch and hit so you can't just say make him a starter and let him pinch hit every once in a while.
My plan is pretty simple but i think it could work. Make Ohtani the Wednesday starter every week and put him in the outfield Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That would give him Monday and Tuesday to get ready for his start and thursday to rest after pitching. He would get middle of the order at-bats 4 games a week and be available to pinch hit off the bench or DH on the other days. The rest of the rotation would have to be cool with it which might be tough at first and they may have to use a spot starter every once in a while to give them a break as they would be pitching 5 of the 6 games each week between 4 starters. Stratton or Blach would have to be in the bullpen and available to start probably 2-3 times a month.
Longterm I would sell Ohtani on playing 1B when he isn't pitching. He is 6'3" and would probably do fine at 1B defensively. He would be required to make more throws every game than from the OF but he wouldn't have to make as many hard throws that could risk him hurting his arm.
What would your plan be with him Doc?
Maybe not coincidentally, the Giants and the Mariners were the last two teams that Nori Aoki played full seasons with, as an outfielder, as it happens, in 2015 and 2016. If I were Ohtani’s advisor, I’d want to query him about those teams’ intangibles, to check and amplify the questionnaire that O et al. sent out. Does anyone recall much about Aoki’s experience with the Giants?
DeleteFirst, I'll say that he hasn't openly nixed ideas like keeping him to his Japanese schedule of pitching once a week, then playing the rest. However, athletes, at least in America, generally do not want to be babied. He's coming over to join the MLB, not necessarily change the MLB. And doing this would be seen as babying his arm or as that he's not as good as other major leaguers, and thus he's used like this.
DeleteThis would also force his SP teammates to accommodate him, as they either have to pitch on short rest or the team would be forced to throw in long reliever for spot start. I think where the Giants could shine here is by keeping him to MLB standards, every 5 games, with their normal monitoring of where he is, with the promise to rest him as necessary, like they have with their young pitchers before, skipping a start as necessary when they were having problems or need a breather. Being how athletes are very macho, I would think he would want to be used like other SP ideally and the teams proposing that would probably be favored.
Will he want to stick out like that? Asian culture does not encourage people to stick out like a nail, or be hammered in. Still, going two-way is also sticking out, so perhaps he don't mind, as the team will have to change to accommodate his hitting. But that would be a consideration, and where teams can shine in their answer to the seven questions, by showing what they know about his preferences.
Here's what I know. The thing is, he wants to join the majors as a pitcher and hitter. He's acknowledged to be a very good pitcher and hitter, so he'll want to be a SP not RP/closer, as some have suggested. I have seen the fact that he hasn't played OF for a number of years now, but he's 5 tools, great arm and speed, the only fear would be fielding, but at 23, as long as he don't dive or run into walls, he should be great in LF, where even Adam Duvall excels defensively. He sounds like a physical god, a 10-tool player as one scout noted, so I think playing LF 1-2 games per week should work for him.
But so far, he has had a number of injuries to his legs that kept him out, so I agree that long-term he needs to play 1B. Perhaps he can be in a job share program with Posey at 1B? Especially since Posey to first has been pooh-poohed forever. But as he's acknowledged to need more work on his hitting, I think he would be amenable to a feeling out period in his first season, to play less, as long as he's progressing through instruction and in-game play (which he'll get a starting pitcher in NL), with a plan to get him towards goal of hitting regularly. I think sticking him at DH is just taking easy way out, that he'll be OK playing the field, and not being treated as a porcelain doll. Still, that is how his current team handled him, and there is no word I've seen about how he felt about being handled in that way.
I've compiled names of teams that have been announced as in, per a number of sources (mostly twitter, Rosenthal and MLB.com has reported as well): Giants, Mariners, Padres, Dodgers, Angels, Cubs, Rangers.
Jarrod Dyson could be picked up relatively cheaply and be a great defensive improvement in CF.
ReplyDeletePence and Spam could platoon in LF with Pence backing up RF.
RF: Parker and a RHB -- Slater or Pence or ?
If the Giants roll the dice it's Stanton.
Really nice to pick up Gordon for OBP and speed at the top of the lineup.
I like Lorenzo Cain it Cueto is dealt and no deal for Stanton.
The pieces are available, and if Posey, Belt, and Crawford deliver average years, it could be a winner.
Magic IF, tho!
IF is sort of set, with Arroyo, Jones, and Sandoval at 3rd and some backup 1B duty to Belt.
Resign Hundley.
If the "pro's" perform, that's not a bad lineup, but nothing enhances the middle like Stanton.
No wonder the Giants at rolling the dice there!
Well, Anonymous, Dyson has never had more than 400 ABs in a season, so I wouldn’t rely on him in CF, defensively skilled and speedy though he is. Besides, he will be 34 next Fall. Cain is getting old, is costly, and would make the Giants forfeit a draft pick. Arroyo is still a question mark at third, and Jones and Sandoval are question marks in bold face and 64-Point type—hence Sabean’s singling out 3B as a problem area. And I hope we don’t go into 2018 with our budget squeezed to its limit and J. Parker being relied upon in the OF.
DeleteI’m concerned that the longer Stanton takes to figure out his 2018, the more the Giants languish without being able to deal with theirs. Belt to Bosox for Bradley? Then they need a first baseman. Gordon to the Giants to cut Miami payroll, but for a package of prospects not including Panik? Then has Panik, or for that matter Gordon, an arm good enough to play 3B, perhaps? If not, who will? Other teams are picking up players, slowly, and the Giants’ chance to do that optimally keeps remaining in a kind of escrow.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply! Kinda pessimistic but more realistic then my thoughts -- I'm sort of a half full glass person. Haha, your glass isn't even half empty!
DeleteI like Ian MIller now, not Dyson.
DeleteHope he can hit better than a pitcher!