The Official 2024-25 MLB Offseason Discussion Thread

[Hidden Blaze]

Sources: Miami Marlins get Jorge Soler on three-year, $36 million deal​

Damn. Was hoping we get him back

 

[Doom]

Damn. Was hoping we get him back

Same here. But we did manage to get Rosario back.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

Same here. But we did manage to get Rosario back.

Yep! Happy with that one for sure.

 

[Doom]

Boston Red Sox, Trevor Story agree to six-year, $140M contract, sources confirm​

ESPN

Trevor Story and the Boston Red Sox have agreed to a six-year, $140 million contract, sources confirmed to ESPN.

The deal includes an opt-out after the fourth season, sources said.

Story hit a crowded free-agent field -- alongside fellow shortstops Carlos Correa, Marcus Semien, Javier Baez and Corey Seager -- with a résumé featuring two All-Star Games, two Silver Slugger awards and MVP votes during the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons.

The concern with any player who built his career with the Colorado Rockies is that career numbers are skewed by playing half of his games at Coors Field. Story's batting average and on-base percentage are 60 points lower on the road, his slugging percentage 160 points lower, and his wRC+ 27 points lower. In recent history, Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu and Troy Tulowitzki all became markedly better road hitters with worse home splits after leaving Colorado, though three players is hardly a definitive sample size.

Story, 29, could be moved to second base alongside Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts. At the major league level, Story has never played a position other than shortstop, where he ranked among the majors' best in 2019 with plus-18 outs above average and was an NL Gold Glove finalist.

Story has shown big power in the past, hitting 37 homers in 2018, 35 in 2019, 11 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and 24 in 2021. In 2019, Story reached 100 career homers in 448 games, becoming the fastest shortstop to ever do so. In his six-year tenure with Colorado, he solidified himself as one of the best players in franchise history, ranking in the top 10 in homers, doubles, triples and stolen bases. He also tied for 14th in the majors in steals last season with 20.

USA Today first reported on the Red Sox's agreement with Story.

ESPN's Joon Lee contributed to this report.

 

[Doom]

Chicago Cubs, Drew Smyly reach 1-year contract​

ESPN

The Chicago Cubs have agreed with left-hander Drew Smyly on a one-year contract, the team announced Saturday.

The deal is worth $5.25 million and Smyly could earn an additional $2.5 million in bonuses, a source told ESPN's Jesse Rogers.

The Cubs also announced one-year agreements with infielder Jonathan Villar and left-hander Daniel Norris. The Smyly and Villar deals include mutual options for the 2023 season.

Smyly, 32, won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves last season, when he went 11-4 with a 4.48 ERA in 29 appearances (23 starts). He pitched twice in the Braves' World Series victory over the Houston Astros, allowing three runs over four innings.

He signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the Cubs in December 2017 but never pitched for Chicago. Working his way back after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017, Smyly ran out of time to get into a big league game in 2018 and was traded to the Texas Rangers that November.

He is 46-39 with a 4.18 ERA in his career, pitching for the Tigers (2012-14), Rays (2014-16), Rangers (2019), Phillies (2019), Giants (2020) and Braves.

Villar is slated to make $4.5 million in salary in 2022, and there is a $10 million mutual option with a $1.5 million buyout. He earns a $500,000 performance bonus for reaching 500 plate appearances. Norris' contract is worth $1.75 million, and the lefty can earn up to $2 million in incentives. Norris played for Detroit and Milwaukee last year, going 2-3 with a 6.16 ERA in 56 games.

Also Saturday, the Cubs placed infielder David Bote on the 60-day injured list while he recovers from left shoulder surgery and put right-hander Tommy Nance on the COVID-19-related injured list.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

Jansen fulfills childhood dream in donning Braves uniform

NORTH PORT, Fla. -- As Kenley Jansen experienced his first day with his new employer, he reminisced about those childhood days when his love for baseball was fueled by the countless times he spent watching his older brother, Ardley, and fellow Curacao native, Andruw Jones, play within the...

www.mlb.com

 

[Doom]

Sources: Colorado Rockies lock up Ryan McMahon with 6-year, $70 million extension​

ESPN

ATLANTA -- After 14 seasons and becoming the best quarterback in franchise history, the Atlanta Falcons are moving on from Matt Ryan.

Atlanta traded Ryan on Monday to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter and Dianna Russini.

Conversations about Ryan's departure picked up at the start of the new league year, when the Falcons became part of the group of teams inquiring about trading for quarterback Deshaun Watson. Higher-ups throughout Atlanta's organization met with Watson, a Gainesville, Georgia native, and tried to lure him to the Falcons despite 22 open civil suits ranging from inappropriate conduct to sexual assault against female massage therapists.

As part of that pursuit, the Falcons and Ryan pushed back a $7.5 million roster bonus due March 18 back five days to both let the Watson courtship play out and allow Ryan to seek out trade partners. Watson ended up waiving his no-trade clause to go to Cleveland, but it also put the Falcons in a position where it had very publicly sought out a succession plan for Ryan.

 

[Doom]

MLB letter to New York Yankees about sign-stealing allegations to be made public despite appeal​

ESPN

NEW YORK -- A letter detailing a 2017 investigation into the New York Yankees will become a public document, two years after a federal judge ruled it should be unsealed.

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the daily fantasy ramifications of electronic sign-stealing in baseball allege that a 2017 news release from commissioner Rob Manfred hid the full findings of what MLB discovered the Yankees had done. The letter's impending release will reveal any differences between what Manfred said in public about his findings and what was revealed in private.

Manfred wrote the letter to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, and it is alleged to contain proof of the team's sign-stealing methods from 2017, when New York was busted for improperly using a dugout phone and the Boston Red Sox were found to be using Apple Watches to pick up on signals from opposing teams.

A source told ESPN it will be at least two weeks before the letter is made public.

Yankees team president Randy Levine argued against the release of the letter in December 2020, saying it would raise "serious" privacy issues and that letters by the Houston Astros and the Red Sox, filed as confidential in the suit, weren't being made public. Levine also said that the letter would harm the Yankees' reputation.

"The Yankees argue that the harm from the unsealing of the Yankees Letter will rise because its content 'would be distorted to falsely and unfairly generate the confusing scenario that the Yankees had somehow violated MLB's sign stealing rules, when in fact the Yankees did not,'" the court wrote. "That argument, however, carries little weight. Disclosure of the document will allow the public to independently assess MLB's conclusion regarding the internal investigation (as articulated to the Yankees) and the Yankees are fully capable of disseminating their own views regarding the actual content of the Yankees letter."

Major League Baseball and the Yankees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The court also upheld the dismissal of the $5 million lawsuit over the illegal sign-stealing scandal that rocked baseball from 2019 through 2020 filed by DraftKings player Kristopher Olson and 100 other plaintiffs against MLB, the Astros and the Red Sox.

 

[Swerve]

 

[Hidden Blaze]

@Nimrod @Swamps @Swerve

 

[Hidden Blaze]

good video.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

@Nimrod @Swamps @Swerve

 

[Doom]

@Nimrod @Swamps @Swerve

Awesome!

Though I'm a bit disappointed that it's not on ESPN. But, it's a win-win for us Braves fans to watch the opener against the Reds.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

Awesome!

Though I'm a bit disappointed that it's not on ESPN. But, it's a win-win for us Braves fans to watch the opener against the Reds.

Yeah, be nice to be the main ESPN, but I’m just happy I won’t have to use the app for the first game since I’m seeing this is exclusively on ESPN 2, which means it won’t be on Bally and won’t be blacked out.

 

[Swerve]

Yeah, be nice to be the main ESPN, but I’m just happy I won’t have to use the app for the first game since I’m seeing this is exclusively on ESPN 2, which means it won’t be on Bally and won’t be blacked out.

Bally blocks you out in GA?