December 7: We say goodbye to Dan Gregory, who patrolled CF for us the last six season when he wasn't hurt, as he signed a 3/72 deal with the team that beat us in the playoffs and won it all, Texas. All I can say is good luck Rangers - Gregory is now wrecked and will probably be lucky to give them 80 games/season. Since we made him a qualifying offer we'll get a supplemental first rounder. The Rangers also signed SP Rogelio Espinoza, one of the game's better starting pitchers over the years with San Diego but who had a down season in his walk year with Washington, to a 5/116 deal as they're serious about their title defense.
December 9: Josh Grote, who had an up-and-down season in our pen last year, signed a $1/1.1 deal with Washington where he'll probably go back to starting.
December 11: Zach Wells, who tormented us for years in Toronto as one of the game's best hitters, went for 5/148 to Philadelphia so we don't have to see the career .332 hitter much anymore.
Well we have a replacement for Dan Gregory in CF - and he's 38!
Since he's played his entire MLB career with the Dodgers, I really haven't talked about Kevin Crater very much but he's an LA legend and a future Hall-of-Famer. He's hit 562 career homers and although he's never won a Gold Glove he's an excellent defender (60 with a +4 ZR in CF last season) even at his current age as he's rated a solid 80 for speed (as well as 80 for baserunning and stealing). In fact he's coming off third 30/30 season when he hit 36 HR and stole 35 bases at the age of 37. He's in the final year of his contract and the Dodgers probably aren't really going anywhere these days, so they gave him a shot at a ring. They're eating 75% of his salary and the cost wasn't much for us (BJ Turner, who was questionable to make the team, and Jose Soto, a somewhat promising but C+ starting pitching prospect). Now there is a downside with Crater - he has terrible on-base skills at this stage of his career, having hit .191 and .218 the last two seasons with OBPs of .243 and .262. But the power and the defense will be more than enough (it was enough for 3.5 WAR last year) and I expect those numbers to tick up playing in Publix Park.
December 21: The Dodgers gave free agent SP Dan Robinson, who was in our 2045 rotation, a 6/132 deal.
December 22: Added C Kurt Ferguson, IF Ed Herrera, OF Jeremy Williams, OF Corey Herring and P Chris Krisik to the 40-man roster.
Our farm system isn't that great these days, a byproduct of continually drafting at the end of the first round. But we do have some prospects worth adding to the 40-man to keep them from the Rule 5 draft. Ferguson right now will be the backup catcher unless we pick someone up, Herrera and Krisik are top 150 prospects, and Herring and Williams can rake and probably play for some other MLB teams right now.
December 23: Lost OF Chad Chaplain to the Dodgers in the Rule 5 Draft.
Chaplain is a 34-year-old CF who played with Durham last year. He actually can play a decent CF and I guess LA needed someone after they traded us Kevin Crater. He was a starter from 2036-2043 with the Reds and Twins but never had more than 2.1 WAR in a season. Chaplain was minor league depth for us but likely won't be missed.
December 25: Rays fans found a Christmas present under their trees this morning, imported from Japan:
We now have our backup catcher, who was an international free agent who came over. He's no Yuji Morioka, but at $2.4M he'll be useful and provide some pop when he plays along with elite-level defense, in other words the perfect backup catcher. I'm figuring on Nelson Bocardo playing about 110-115 games so we're not asking a lot from Suzuki.
Meanwhile Jeff Brockman, who started for us in 2040-42 and was part of Washington's "super-rotation" last year full of free-agent-to-be aces such as Dan Robinson and Rogelio Espinoza but missed the playoffs, signed a 5/103 deal with the Angels.