The first big bit of news is that Stu Sternberg has given me a payroll of $140M. We're going to need it with a slew of players going to arbitration and multi-million raises due to the likes of
Wander Franco, Adley Rutschman and
Devin Williams. We'll be shipping out some people as discussed in the previous post.
A wave of retirements around the league with some big names including Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew McCutchen, Mike Moutstakas, Craig Kimbrel, Dallas Keuchel, James Paxton, Starlin Castro, Tommy Pham, Rick Porcello, Asdrubal Cabrera, Starling Marte and Adam Eaton.
One thing off our to-do list:
Ginn is an excellent pitching prospect who was very effective out of the Mets' pen last season:
He's still considered a starter long-term and a good one, and he's a possibility for the rotation even though everyone is slated to come back.
Griffin Canning is a candidate for the bullpen even though he pitched decently as a starter. With
Nick Anderson going free agent and possibly some other moves to be made, at worst Ginn will pitch in relief.
Mission accomplished #2: The
Wander Franco contract extension for 8/181. Details:
No he won't be cheap but he's one of the game's best players and better for us to control him than deal him elsewhere.
November 9: Awards update: we were shut out on Gold Gloves, thought
Adley Rutschman had a chance but Christian Vazquez beat him out.
Devin Williams finished 3 in the AL Reliever of the Year balloting, but Rutschman and
Wander Franco did win Silver Sluggers at C and SS respectively.
November 10: Former Gators star Judson Fabian, who hit .293-23-96 for Kansas City, was unanimously named AL Rookie of the Year while Nick Dunn was the choice of all 32 voters in the NL after hitting .331.
November 12: I thought it would be closer with Giolito but no, it was unanimous!
He becomes the first Ray to win the award since Blake Snell in 2018 and the third in club history after Snell and David Price. Walker Buehler won it in the NL again despite a "down" year (10-10, 3.23) taking 31 of 32 votes and beating out Atlanta's Ian Anderson and Colorado's Lucas Gilbreath.
November 13: Wow, what a close and fragmented race for the AL MVP:
Trout ends up with his 6th MVP and his 3rd straight, but it was kind of surprising to see him win after a dreadful first half which saw him hit .206 with 15 HR. He was his MVP-self during the second half (and especially during the postseason, but that doesn't count here) but his final batting average of .254 is the lowest-ever for an MVP, although he did hit 44 HR and drive in 108. Batting average of course isn't the definitive hitting stat, but his 6.1 WAR was 8th in the league as well. My vote went to the clear WAR leader, Francisco Lindor at 7.7, but he ended up 4th, just behind Wander. 8 different players received first-place votes to show how jumbled things were.
Things were much clearer in the NL where Fernando Tatis Jr. won it after a rare 10-WAR season with 29 of the 32 first-place vote. Tatis hit .310-40-109 and played a fine SS.
Another trade:
As you can see my assistant GM didn't like it, but the offers by themselves for Dunn as prospects go (he needed to go for someone on an MiLB contract since I wanted the 40-man spot) were not that great so I threw Pie into the deal, who's a B-/C+ prospect who was going to be blocked by Wander anyway especially with the new long-term deal. The third guy we threw in was a "make it work" minor league free agent we signed who is no prospect. The prize of course is Cecconi, who looks like a bonafide starting pitching prospect who's already handled the Pacific Coast League decently. A look under the hood:
He's not going to be a Cy Young winner but I see a useful 4th/5th starter here who could be a #3.