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Art Deco · 12-10-2023, 11:22 PM

As always we start with the notable retirements.

MLBers of note: Gerrit Cole, Jose Altuve, Zack Wheeler, Christian Yelich, Seiya Suzuki, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, J.D. Davis, Noah Syndergaard, Joc Pederson, Daniel Vogelbach, Andrew Beninitendi, Rhys Hoskins, Starling Marte, Javier Baez

Former Rays: Randy Arozarena, Mike Zunino, Jason Adam, Jordan Luplow, Emilio Pagan, Anthony Banda

Time for another trade:

Winn was pegged to make $4.2M in arbitration which is a lot for a backup so I shopped him, and came up with Teodo who could be a part of our rotation next year:

Incredible stuff and movement, horrendous control. It's all added up to decent numbers though and he'll make a good 4th/5th starter. Despite shedding Winn and Luisangel Acuna, we still have Tetsuhisa Hirata and Thomas Saggese to be backups.

In other news, I've decided to non-tender Triston Casas (there wasn't really any kind of trade market for him) instead of paying him $10M. We have numerous options to DH, any one of whom should hopefully equal or better Casas' 0.8 WAR last year.

Awards season:

Gold Gloves: None for the Rays.

Reliever of the Year: Houston's Jonathan Sprinkle won the AL award thanks to 40 saves and a 1.27 ERA while Milwaukee's Fray Morelo took the NL nod with 55 saves and a 2.57 ERA.

Silver Sluggers: No Rays winners here either, although former Ray Wander Franco won at 2B in the NL with the Dodgers.

Rookie of the Year: Detroit 1B Pete Anderson won in the AL after a .282-32-113 season, beating out teammate Eric Groth, a Cy Young contender after going 22-5, 3.23. The NL winner was Colorado 2B Jack Ruckert, voted unanimously after hitting .302-18-71.

Cy Young: And the rookie Groth did take the AL award, nosing out Seattle's Triston McKenzie 162-152 (and 16-11 in first-place votes). Despite a truncated season our Shane McClanahan finished third and earned three first-place votes (not from me though). Philly's Andrew Painter was the NL winner, beating out Milwaukee's Moises Brito 177-153 and 19-11. Painter was 19-4, 2.54.

MVP: LA's Japanese star Tsuneharu Sugihara won it after a monster .327-51-150 season over Aaron Judge, who hit .304-57-125 and out WAR'd him. In the NL Washington 2nd-year OF Malakhi Knight hit .298-48-121 to win handily over former Ray Wander Franco.

November 15: Claimed P Magdiel Cotto on waivers from the White Sox.

Cotto is a hard-throwing reliever rated 70/50/50 who was a rookie last year with the Yankees before they waived him and he was claimed by the White Sox, who apparently couldn't find room for him either. He'll figure into our bullpen mix.

November 18: Texas acquired hard-hitting OF Zac Veen from the Rockies for a top OF prospect.

November 24: Mega trade incoming!

The Padres were looking to move Tatis' contract, and I obliged them as we had nearly $50M to spend. And it didn't cost anyone off the active roster with the best prospect maybe being Allen, our 2nd-round pick from a few years ago who hasn't gotten out of complex ball yet. Langford was once the #1 overall pick in 2023 but has flamed out in the bigs and we signed him to a minor league deal last August. Beal could be someone's 5th starter but has 35 movement so I was never going to trust him. So nothing we'll miss, and we get 2 seasons of Tatis at $29M/year. Tatis will probably play LF with Kevin Alcantara thrust into the DH mix, but we get a true impact bat, one who admittedly is coming off a tough, injury-plagued year but still has elite ratings.

December 3: The first notable free agent signed as SS Tim Anderson joined the Blue Jays on a 3/77 deal.

December 5: SS Vaughn Grissom, who had big first year (29 HR) with the Dodgers after coming over from Atlanta, stayed in SoCal by signing a massive 8/280 deal with the Angels.

December 7: 2B Andres Gimenez, a perennial .300, 5-WAR guy, joined St. Louis for 5/183.

December 9: More big free agent signings: Jack Flaherty (NYY, 2/21), Kodai Senga (NYY, 3/69), former Ray Jeffrey Springs (BOS, 2/42), Spencer Strider (SF, 7/179), and Andrew Vaughn (BOS, 7/191)

December 10: The White Sox went big (4/85) for former Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez.

December 11: The Padres inked C Alejandro Kirk to a 4/61 pact and the Mets dealt 3B Ronny Mauricio to the Marlins for a couple of prospects.

December 13: Former Ray Shane Baz signed a 4/29 deal with Miami.

December 17: Toronto surprised some people by dealing 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the Dodgers for a couple of prospects, including potential 5-star pitcher Dan Scism.

December 20: The Rangers signed long-time Arizona 2B Ketel Marte to a 3/76 deal.

December 22: The Diamondbacks sent 3 prospects to the Cubs for SS Dansby Swanson.

December 22: Added C Mac Guscette, IF Owen Paino and P James Nesta to the 40-man roster.

Rule 5 time again. Guscette has a shot at the backup C job, Paino was our first-round pick in 2024 and had a great season at A+ Bowling Green, looking like a decent hitting prospect. Nesta was a 2nd round pick in that same draft and has 55/55/45 potential as a starter.

December 23: Drafted SS Luis Almeyda from the Baltimore Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft.

This was kind of insane on my part as Almeyda is a 22-year-old who hasn't played above High-A but has this profile:

This is quite a prospect profile but of course we'd have to keep him on the active roster and we already have a lot of infielders. More likely I will shop him around to see what I can get in return.

Meanwhile we didn't lose anyone in the draft, which saw a total of 16 players taken.

December 24: There goes Shea Langeliers for 5/54 to Boston. That's surprisingly low as he was initially demanding $25-26M/year and turned down our $22M qualifying offer, which means we net a supplemental 1st round pick. I might have gone after him if he knew he'd sign for barely over $10M/year.

December 26: Boston stayed aggressive, signing slugger Nolan Jones to a 2/43 contract, while Jose Alvarado once again went from us to Philadelphia (just like in 2021), this time as a free agent for 2/17.

December 27: Baltimore traded longtime 1B Ryan Mountcastle to the Yankees for a catching prospect.

December 30: The Yankees continue to retool, adding SP Triston McKenzie on a 1/19 deal. The skinny righty was 2nd in the Cy Young voting after a 15-10, 3.09 season with Seattle although his 50/40/70 ratings suggest someone not quite that good.

12-10-2023, 11:22 PM	#131
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,586	2028-29 Offseason: Part 1 As always we start with the notable retirements. MLBers of note: Gerrit Cole, Jose Altuve, Zack Wheeler, Christian Yelich, Seiya Suzuki, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, J.D. Davis, Noah Syndergaard, Joc Pederson, Daniel Vogelbach, Andrew Beninitendi, Rhys Hoskins, Starling Marte, Javier Baez Former Rays: Randy Arozarena, Mike Zunino, Jason Adam, Jordan Luplow, Emilio Pagan, Anthony Banda Time for another trade: Winn was pegged to make $4.2M in arbitration which is a lot for a backup so I shopped him, and came up with Teodo who could be a part of our rotation next year: Incredible stuff and movement, horrendous control. It's all added up to decent numbers though and he'll make a good 4th/5th starter. Despite shedding Winn and Luisangel Acuna, we still have Tetsuhisa Hirata and Thomas Saggese to be backups. In other news, I've decided to non-tender Triston Casas (there wasn't really any kind of trade market for him) instead of paying him $10M. We have numerous options to DH, any one of whom should hopefully equal or better Casas' 0.8 WAR last year. Awards season: Gold Gloves: None for the Rays. Reliever of the Year: Houston's Jonathan Sprinkle won the AL award thanks to 40 saves and a 1.27 ERA while Milwaukee's Fray Morelo took the NL nod with 55 saves and a 2.57 ERA. Silver Sluggers: No Rays winners here either, although former Ray Wander Franco won at 2B in the NL with the Dodgers. Rookie of the Year: Detroit 1B Pete Anderson won in the AL after a .282-32-113 season, beating out teammate Eric Groth, a Cy Young contender after going 22-5, 3.23. The NL winner was Colorado 2B Jack Ruckert, voted unanimously after hitting .302-18-71. Cy Young: And the rookie Groth did take the AL award, nosing out Seattle's Triston McKenzie 162-152 (and 16-11 in first-place votes). Despite a truncated season our Shane McClanahan finished third and earned three first-place votes (not from me though). Philly's Andrew Painter was the NL winner, beating out Milwaukee's Moises Brito 177-153 and 19-11. Painter was 19-4, 2.54. MVP: LA's Japanese star Tsuneharu Sugihara won it after a monster .327-51-150 season over Aaron Judge, who hit .304-57-125 and out WAR'd him. In the NL Washington 2nd-year OF Malakhi Knight hit .298-48-121 to win handily over former Ray Wander Franco. November 15: Claimed P Magdiel Cotto on waivers from the White Sox. Cotto is a hard-throwing reliever rated 70/50/50 who was a rookie last year with the Yankees before they waived him and he was claimed by the White Sox, who apparently couldn't find room for him either. He'll figure into our bullpen mix. November 18: Texas acquired hard-hitting OF Zac Veen from the Rockies for a top OF prospect. November 24: Mega trade incoming! The Padres were looking to move Tatis' contract, and I obliged them as we had nearly $50M to spend. And it didn't cost anyone off the active roster with the best prospect maybe being Allen, our 2nd-round pick from a few years ago who hasn't gotten out of complex ball yet. Langford was once the #1 overall pick in 2023 but has flamed out in the bigs and we signed him to a minor league deal last August. Beal could be someone's 5th starter but has 35 movement so I was never going to trust him. So nothing we'll miss, and we get 2 seasons of Tatis at $29M/year. Tatis will probably play LF with Kevin Alcantara thrust into the DH mix, but we get a true impact bat, one who admittedly is coming off a tough, injury-plagued year but still has elite ratings. December 3: The first notable free agent signed as SS Tim Anderson joined the Blue Jays on a 3/77 deal. December 5: SS Vaughn Grissom, who had big first year (29 HR) with the Dodgers after coming over from Atlanta, stayed in SoCal by signing a massive 8/280 deal with the Angels. December 7: 2B Andres Gimenez, a perennial .300, 5-WAR guy, joined St. Louis for 5/183. December 9: More big free agent signings: Jack Flaherty (NYY, 2/21), Kodai Senga (NYY, 3/69), former Ray Jeffrey Springs (BOS, 2/42), Spencer Strider (SF, 7/179), and Andrew Vaughn (BOS, 7/191) December 10: The White Sox went big (4/85) for former Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez. December 11: The Padres inked C Alejandro Kirk to a 4/61 pact and the Mets dealt 3B Ronny Mauricio to the Marlins for a couple of prospects. December 13: Former Ray Shane Baz signed a 4/29 deal with Miami. December 17: Toronto surprised some people by dealing 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the Dodgers for a couple of prospects, including potential 5-star pitcher Dan Scism. December 20: The Rangers signed long-time Arizona 2B Ketel Marte to a 3/76 deal. December 22: The Diamondbacks sent 3 prospects to the Cubs for SS Dansby Swanson. December 22: Added C Mac Guscette, IF Owen Paino and P James Nesta to the 40-man roster. Rule 5 time again. Guscette has a shot at the backup C job, Paino was our first-round pick in 2024 and had a great season at A+ Bowling Green, looking like a decent hitting prospect. Nesta was a 2nd round pick in that same draft and has 55/55/45 potential as a starter. December 23: Drafted SS Luis Almeyda from the Baltimore Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft. This was kind of insane on my part as Almeyda is a 22-year-old who hasn't played above High-A but has this profile: This is quite a prospect profile but of course we'd have to keep him on the active roster and we already have a lot of infielders. More likely I will shop him around to see what I can get in return. Meanwhile we didn't lose anyone in the draft, which saw a total of 16 players taken. December 24: There goes Shea Langeliers for 5/54 to Boston. That's surprisingly low as he was initially demanding $25-26M/year and turned down our $22M qualifying offer, which means we net a supplemental 1st round pick. I might have gone after him if he knew he'd sign for barely over $10M/year. December 26: Boston stayed aggressive, signing slugger Nolan Jones to a 2/43 contract, while Jose Alvarado once again went from us to Philadelphia (just like in 2021), this time as a free agent for 2/17. December 27: Baltimore traded longtime 1B Ryan Mountcastle to the Yankees for a catching prospect. December 30: The Yankees continue to retool, adding SP Triston McKenzie on a 1/19 deal. The skinny righty was 2nd in the Cy Young voting after a 15-10, 3.09 season with Seattle although his 50/40/70 ratings suggest someone not quite that good.