2016-2017 MLB Off-season Thread

[Vanimal46]

We had a regular season thread... Might as well make an off-season thread to track signings, firings, trades, etc. 

[Vanimal46]

Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss steps down from the role this afternoon. He finishes the season with a 75-87 record. The team's best record since 2010. 

[Vanimal46]

Chicago White Sox Manager Robin Ventura steps down, and they just hired Rick Renteria to take over. 

Renteria was the bench coach for the White Sox, and is the only Latino born manager in the MLB.... Sad, really. 

[biggentleben]

There are two tremendously good managerial candidates that are Latin, but they take non-team jobs because of pay or stick with guys who are loyal to them. Those two are Alex Cora, who works with ESPN, and Dave Martinez, who is bench coach with the Chicago Cubs after staying with Maddon in the move from the Tampa Bay Rays. Both will someday be tremendous managers when a team is smart enough to hire them.

 

The Braves have Eddie Perez on their coachin gstaff, and he's been a "future manager" since the days he was Greg Maddux's personal catcher. So far, however, he's turned down every interview request outside the Braves organization. Whether he ends up the Braves manager this offseason is anyone's guess, but Perez will likely be another one down the line.

[Vanimal46]

Brian Snitker sheds the interim tag, and will remain the Braves manager for 2017. They went 59-65 under his watch after Fredi Gonzalez was let go. 

[biggentleben]

 

Brian Snitker sheds the interim tag, and will remain the Braves manager for 2017. They went 59-65 under his watch after Fredi Gonzalez was let go. 

 

The bigger intriguing thing is that Ron Washington is brought in as third base coach, and reportedly, Bud Black was offered the pitching coach job as well.

[Pardon My Dinger]

Rubio is absolutely the man. He doesn't need to take a single shot.

[Vanimal46]

The Atlanta Braves are swinging for the fences already this off-season. First, by signing 42 year old R.A. Dickey. Now they've signed 43 year old Bartolo Colon. Though I'm happy Colon stayed in the National League so we can still witness him batting. He's a national treasure. 

Ben, your thoughts? 

[biggentleben]

I called this, but we'll see if the second piece comes through. I stated on Braves forums that the Braves were one of few teams that had the pieces to pursue Sale, Quintana, or Archer. My thought was that they would protect giving up their younger arms by signing a couple of vet inning-eater arms and then trading away two of guys like Matt Wisler/Aaron Blair/Rob Whalen/John Gant/Tyrell Jenkins/Lucas Sims/Sean Newcomb who are at AA or higher as part of a deal to acquire a front of the rotation guy. Then in 2018, those two older arms are gone and the younger guys can ease into a rotation that's led by Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz, and the new acquisition...

[Mike Sixel]

 

The Atlanta Braves are swinging for the fences already this off-season. First, by signing 42 year old R.A. Dickey. Now they've signed 43 year old Bartolo Colon. Though I'm happy Colon stayed in the National League so we can still witness him batting. He's a national treasure. 

Ben, your thoughts? 

 

fascinating strategy......clearly building a bridge to the future, and not trying to plug it with 4 mediocre FAs.....I can endorse this approach. 

 

Heck, if either is good in July, they trade them for anything at all.

[Vanimal46]

Cuban IF prospect Lourdes Gurriel signs with the Toronto Blue Jays for 7/$22 MM

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/11/blue-jays-sign-lourdes-gurriel-cuba.html 

EDIT: The Blue Jays also signed DH Kendrys Morales to a 3/$33 MM contact as well. Looks like Edwin Encarnacion or Joey Bats, maybe both, are out the door. 

[biggentleben]

Incredible the poor reviews that Gurriel has had come out. I'm not sure he'll make my Blue Jays top 10...

[Vanimal46]

Lots of players have declined the QO so far:

Cespedes, Desmond, Encarnacion, Joey Bats, Trumbo, Jansen, Justin Turner, and Dexter Fowler. 

[biggentleben]

Hellickson accepted.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Hellickson accepted.

 

Speechless.

 

Helps ESan's value!

[bluechipper]

The Astros are going hard. Brian McCann and Josh Reddick in the same day. I'm guessing they'll have a nice bounce-back year in 2017. 

[TheLeviathan]

Reddick got significantly more than the FA Tracker estimated, most contracts are higher at this point.

 

The return on McCann was also pretty significant.

[biggentleben]

 

Reddick got significantly more than the FA Tracker estimated, most contracts are higher at this point.

 

The return on McCann was also pretty significant.

 

Really? Compared to what they were asking the Braves, they settled hard, paying significant salary and getting two guys not in their top 10.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Really? Compared to what they were asking the Braves, they settled hard, paying significant salary and getting two guys not in their top 10.

 

Well, some of that could be rumor, but they got the 7th guy in the Astro's farm for an aging catcher being paid way too much money.  I think they did well.

[jimmer]

 

The Astros are going hard. Brian McCann and Josh Reddick in the same day. I'm guessing they'll have a nice bounce-back year in 2017. 

I thought the Astros had turned the page and gotten a bit smarter.  Then they sign Reddick to a ridiculous contract and that thought goes poof.

[biggentleben]

 

Well, some of that could be rumor, but they got the 7th guy in the Astro's farm for an aging catcher being paid way too much money.  I think they did well.

 

I suppose it depends on who you talk with, but I didn't have to change my top 10 for the Astros system after the trade, and I talked with a lot of people in baseball about each system, so this was not just my viewing of them that made this opinion.

[bluechipper]

 

I thought the Astros had turned the page and gotten a bit smarter.  Then they sign Reddick to a ridiculous contract and that thought goes poof.

Yeah it seems excessive, but he's an upgrade over what they were getting from Colby Rasmus.

[jimmer]

 

Yeah it seems excessive, but he's an upgrade over what they were getting from Colby Rasmus.

at 13M a year, not enough of one.  not enough to validate that kind of move.

[Vanimal46]

Rangers sign SP Andrew Cashner - 1 year $10 million. 

That is reasonable. 

[Benchwarmerjim]

Drew Butera resigns with the Royals

 

For a guy who can't hit and is a mediocre defensive catcher, he has sure stuck around. Good for him!

[Vanimal46]

Cardinals signed LHRP Brett Cecil to a 4 year $30.5 MM contact over the weekend. That also includes a full no-trade clause. He's had good stats over the last 4 years, and should be a solid back end of the bullpen for the Cards. 

[biggentleben]

This Rangers thing is going to get ugly in a hurry:

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources-rangers-prospects-questioned-for-allegedly-sexually-hazing-underage-teammate-210055315.html

 

This is what is such a mess in the Dominican. I was talking with a former Angels front office guy, and he talked about working in the Dominican scouting, and he was told by a player that the three oldest teammates on the team he played on to prepare for his showcase forced any new player on the team to perform oral sex on them on their first day on the team. These were guys who were 19-20 forcing boys who were 13-15 to perform sexual acts. Is there any question we need to clean things up in Latin America?!

[TheLeviathan]

Segura for Walker is a good deal for Arizona.

[ashbury]

Segura for Walker is a good deal for Arizona.

Not only does Arizona's park tend to inflate offense numbers, but so does their AAA affiliate in Reno. I'd like to know Seattle's thinking in this. Maybe they have real questions about the SS Marte who they gave up. But Walker alone seems like a very high price for what they got in return: a SS likely to return to earth, a backup CF, and a likely good reliever.

[biggentleben]

Marte's not very good for sure.

 

Segura is incredibly talented, but he had injury and an incredible personal tragedy that really killed about a year and a half. He's a premium player for sure.