The Angels are now in their 5 day exclusive negotiations with Ohtani. I don’t think anyone believes he’s staying. His agent will push for a huge salary for a unique talent. Meanwhile another Tommy John surgery might mean he’s not so unique anymore. He’s currently scheduled to be able to hit next season but not pitch until 2025. I’m guessing he goes to the Giants.
There are already some big manager and front office openings. Probably the biggest is to replace Dusty in Houston. Whoever takes that will inherit a team that’s still pretty great.
The Yankees making some early roster moves to clear space. Domingo German had about the biggest roller coaster ride you can have this year. He threw a perfect game in June then got placed on the restricted list for alcohol abuse treatment in August.
I’m guessing Ohtani lost about $100 million by suffering that late-season injury, but he may still get something like 10-years $500 million.
The Dodgers were long considered the frontrunner, but Ohtani likes to defy convention, so who knows, he might go to the Mariners, Giants or Rangers.
The Angels thoroughly wasted every single drop of opportunity with Ohtani. Not only did they fail to make the playoffs once with Ohtani’s 6 prime years, but they also refused to trade him and get whatever value they could - and still wound up missing the playoffs.
Marcus Stroman (surprisingly) and Cody Bellinger (non-surprisingly) both declined their options to remain in Chicago, meaning that the Cubs have to address their starting rotation, corner infield, and outfield deficiencies.
There was speculation that Stroman, due to the injury he suffered late in the season, would exercise his option and remain with the club to try to increase his value going into the next offseason.
There are whispers about Pete Alonzo from the Mets being a 1B target. Jaimer Candelario is a possibility for resigning.
The Cubs have a fairly stacked minor league system. They have prospects to trade.
I’m still not sold on Ross as the manager, but people seem to like playing for him, and it’s his first managerial job ever, so I’m trying to be patient with him.
I saw an article a few months back that Counsell was the target the Cubs should pursue in the offseason. As I said upthread, I was willing to let him grow into the job.
I wonder if Dansby Swanson had any input into this. He was taking an active role in the Cubs’ offseason moves.
Speaking of the Cubs, Swanson, Ian Happ, and Nico Hoerner were all Gold Glove winners this year.
My understanding was that the Brewers were letting Counsell test the market, and if he got another offer, the Brewers had the option to match it, to keep him in Milwaukee.
But, the Cubs (who weren’t known to be in the running, at least not from what I was reading last night) gave him a 5 year, $40 million contract, which makes him the highest paid manager in MLB history.
I suspect that the Brewers’ response was, “we like you, Craig, but not at $8 million a year.”
The clock has reset for Ohtani. He was given a qualifying offer. He has until the 14th to reject or accept. I’m assuming he will reject it but I guess it’s possible he takes the one year deal and hopes his comeback from injury raises his price tag in a year.
Nah.
Some top free agents received qualifying offers also.
Now they’ll get some compensation if he goes. Not nearly enough.
It’s really hard to understand what they were thinking. Unless they planned on opening up the vault and paying him to stay why not trade him before the deadline to a contending team that was willing to give some value to rent him? I’m sure someone was willing to give up some prospects. Then a couple weeks later he gets injured to make things even worse.
Because at the trade deadline the Angels were within a reasonable distance from the playoff picture, and they made considerable moves to improve their team in order to get there. It all blew up spectacularly, but this is one move where the Angels should actually be applauded. I wish more teams would take low odds risks to make a run. As we’ve seen, once you’re in the playoffs, nearly anything can happen.
I’m not sure. I’m a big baseball fan, but I wasn’t too aware of the inner workings of everything at that point in my life. I was a lad of just 20 and more concerned about hedonism.