Hot stove funds drying up. This has been anti-climactic.
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11:05pm: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the two sides do indeed have an agreement, in principle. Soria’s contract will check in with a total value in the $15-15.5MM range, tweets Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com.
10:51pm: The Athletics are closing in on a two-year contract with free-agent reliever Joakim Soria, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The right-hander still has to pass a physical, per Rosenthal, and there are still some final details to be ironed out before the deal comes to fruition. Soria is represented by Oscar Suarez.
The 34-year-old Soria just wrapped up a three-year, $25MM contract with the Royals — a pact which didn’t pan out well in year one of the deal but took a turn for the better in years two and three. This past season, Soria tossed 60 2/3 innings of 3.12 ERA ball between the White Sox and Brewers, averaging 11.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.59 HR/9 along the way.
In many respects, in fact, the 2018 season was one of the best, if not the best of Soria’s impressive big league career. He averaged personal bests in swinging-strike rate (14.4 percent) and opponents’ chase rate (34.3 percent), and his 2.44 FIP and 2.88 SIERA were among the best marks of his 12-year MLB career as well. Perhaps most impressively, the 83.6 mph average exit velocity that Soria allowed to opponents registered as the lowest of any pitcher in baseball (min. 150 batted ball events), per Statcast.
Much of the emphasis for the A’s this offseason has centered around the team’s rotation needs (with good reason), but adding Soria to the mix will give Oakland another quality reliever to join the likes of Blake Treinen, Yusmeiro Petit, Lou Trivino, Fernando Rodney and Ryan Buchter. That’s a solid collection of relievers, which figures to be more important for the A’s than most other clubs, assuming they plan to continue utilizing “the opener” tactic and piecing together the occasional game via “bullpenning.”
While Soria unequivocally improves the pitching staff as a whole, the A’s still have a clear, pressing need for some pitchers who can offer more innings than the aforementioned bunch. Oakland will be without Sean Manaea for the entire 2019 season due to shoulder surgery, while right-handers Jharel Cotton and Daniel Gossett will be on the mend from Tommy John surgery early in the season. The same is true of top pitching prospect A.J. Puk, and another rotation option, Andrew Triggs, will be recovering from thoracic outlet surgery.
At present, the Oakland rotation is a muddled mess, with the likes of Daniel Mengden, Frankie Montas, Paul Blackburn, Chris Bassitt, Aaron Brooks, Tanner Anderson and Grant Holmes among the options from which the organization can choose. The A’s, somewhat unthinkably, managed to win 97 games in a season where their most prominent starters beyond Manaea were Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Edwin Jackson and Mengden. That, however, seems highly unlikely to be a repeatable feat, and the A’s are expected to add some more experienced rotation pieces as the winter progresses.
A two-year commitment to Soria in the $15.5MM range is within reasonable proximity, albeit a bit shy, of the two-year, $18MM contract MLBTR estimated when ranking the game’s top 50 free agents in early November. Among participants in MLBTR’s Free Agent Prediction Contest, just 3.2 percent correctly pegged Soria to land in green and gold this winter.Comment -
daniel murphy did go to the rockies
Reports: Murphy agrees to 2-year Rockies deal
Daniel Murphy agrees to two-year, $24 million deal with Colorado Rockies
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Interesting............................. .......Comment -
Dodgers need to win the world series already ffs.Comment -
Cardinals sign Andrew Miller to two-year, $25 M deal.Comment -
Texas traded Profar.
He's going to Oakland.
What Texas should've done was traded Andrus a few years ago and kept Profar. Instead, they kept both which was odd and overpaid Andrus big time.[quote=jjgold;5683305]I win again like usual
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[quote=Whippit;7921056]miami won't lose a single eastern conference game through end of season[/quote]Comment -
The Los Angeles Dodgers have traded Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer to the Cincinnati Reds for a package including Homer Bailey, prospects Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray and possibly international bonus slots, multiple reports say.Comment -
Wow, the Reds completely fleeced the Dodgers[quote=jjgold;5683305]I win again like usual
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[quote=Whippit;7921056]miami won't lose a single eastern conference game through end of season[/quote]Comment -
Star free agent Manny Machado may have wrapped up his tour of several potential new teams, but that doesn’t mean he’ll rush into a decision. Per Jon Heyman of Fancred (Twitter link), the 26-year-old has informed the three teams he recently met with that he will not be putting pen to paper until the calendar flips.
Surely, Machado has plenty to think about and discuss after spending several hours with the White Sox, Yankees, and Phillies. He’ll also no doubt want to leave agent Dan Lozano ample time to negotiate up the offer prices — if not to reel in some other bidders as well.
There was a time when more of the free agent dealmaking was wrapped up earlier in the offseason. But with teams showing ample patience of late, it surely behooves players not to rush into things when the circumstances call for a slow-play. Plus, Machado and fellow free agent Bryce Harper find themselves in a rare spot as exceedingly youthful and accomplished open-market assets.Comment -
Good luck today gentlemen!..Comment -
If you are a Reds fan, what is not to like??Comment -
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Empiremaker2 did you used to play poker on party poker?Comment -
The Angels, Brewers and Rangers join the previously reported Phillies as a few of the teams with interest in free-agent left-hander Dallas Keuchel, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
As a onetime American League Cy Young winner (2015) who ranks among the majors’ top 20 starters in ERA (3.28) and fWAR (18.2) since his breakout 2014 season, Keuchel entered the winter as the most accomplished rotation piece available. Nevertheless, the soon-to-be 31-year-old has gone without a contract for nearly two months, and has watched several other starters – including newly minted $100MM man Patrick Corbin – ink lucrative pacts.
Both Keuchel and agent Scott Boras are partly responsible for the hurler’s unemployed status, of course, as they’re reportedly seeking a five- to six-year deal worth big money. At the outset of the offseason, MLBTR predicted a four-year, $82MM pact for Keuchel, who, as a qualifying offer recipient, would cost a team more than just a major chunk of cash. Because Keuchel rejected the Astros’ QO, both the Angels and Rangers would give up their second-highest 2019 draft pick and $500K in international bonus pool space to sign him. The Brewers would face a lesser penalty, though, as they’d only have to surrender their third-highest draft choice.
Among Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Texas, the Brewers are arguably the best fit on paper for Keuchel. Milwaukee came within a game of a World Series berth in 2018, but it did so in spite of an uninspiring-looking rotation – one that has since seen Wade Miley reach free agency after a surprisingly effective campaign. The problem is that the Brewers might not have the payroll room to make a headline-grabbing splash on the open market. Meanwhile, having already added starters Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill in free agency, the Angels may be done addressing their rotation this winter, as Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com suggested Thursday. And the Rangers, unlike the Brewers and Angels, are in a rebuild and aren’t targeting a playoff berth in 2019. As such, even though their rotation is in dire need of help, it may not make sense for the Rangers to fervently pursue a high-priced starter – excluding Japanese import Yusei Kikuchi, 27 – over the next year or two.Comment -
Let’s go Theo, what are you waiting for?Comment -
Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte agreed to a one-year deal with the Giants on Friday morning,Venditte got a big league deal and will be on the 40-man roster. He will make $585,000 if he's in the big league.........Comment
