Shortstops, shortstops...get ya shortstops heeeeere!! Correa, Seager, Story, Semein, Baez...if you need a SS (lookin at you, Yankees),you got some good ones to choose from.

So far, though...it's just been pitchers coming off the board. A few of the notables:

Eduardo Rodriguez turns down Boston's 18.7 mil qualifying offer and signs a 5/77 deal with Detroit.

Noah Syndergard signs a 1/21 deal with Anaheim. Are the Angels actually trying to help Trout and Shohei?

Steven Matz signs a 4/44 deal with the Cards.

But…I get it.

is the Dodgers are doing all they can to keep him.

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1464337871037476870?t=hSRVrxAbYnfS-cKFz2uhew&s=19

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1464459448152309760?s=20

Marte.

.

https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1465065992862650369?s=20

https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1465079678897733636?s=20

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1465138688724283399?s=20

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1465144289495638016?s=20

.

.

.

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It can't be teams crying poor, with the type of cash these front offices are committing.

They want to spend

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10019743-marcus-stroman-cubs-agree-to-3-year-contract-worth-reported-71m-in-mlb-free-agency

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32754352/everything-need-know-mlb-looming-lockout

Everything you need to know about MLB's lockout
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Dec 1, 2021
Jesse Rogers
ESPN Staff Writer
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Welcome to the end of baseball ... for a while, at least.

At 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, the collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association expired. At 12:01 Thursday morning, the league informed the players that it had locked them out, beginning the game's first work stoppage in more than 25 years.

So what does that mean for the rest of the offseason? How long will it last? What are the sticking points in the negotiations? And what's a lockout, anyway?

ESPN baseball expert Jesse Rogers tackles those questions and more.

How did we get here? What is a lockout -- and why now?

The last deal between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA was negotiated in 2016. The current collective bargaining agreement covers everything from how long the season will last to what kind of per diem players receive on the road. It also addresses the greater economics of the game, such as free agency and arbitration. And it ended at midnight. At 12:01, the owners locked out the players, hoping to push the union into a more urgent state of negotiation. It's essentially the antithesis of a players' strike. Since players don't get paid in the offseason, nor are there games, there's nothing for them to strike over. Instead, the league chose to halt all player activity as it relates to their teams. No free-agent signings, no use of team facilities -- in fact, no contact of any kind between team and player -- is allowed until a new agreement is reached.

How long is the lockout expected to last? Could games be lost next year?

Yes, games could be lost. That's always a possibility once a work stoppage occurs, but with three months until the regular season begins, it would be shocking if 2022 didn't go a full 162 games. There is a chance spring training doesn't start on time, using that period as a soft deadline to force some issues to get resolved, but we're far from that happening. The sides already lost a lot of money during the pandemic. Anything short of a full season would be another devastating blow to the sport, both economically and from a public relations standpoint.

What is main sticking point in the negotiations between the owners and players?

Economics. Players feel, with the emergence of analytics within front offices, that fewer and fewer second- and third-tier players are getting paid when they finally become free agents after six years of major league service time, which is often when a player turns 30 or very close to it. In general, players would like to be paid more at younger ages because that's when they are in their prime. The system also favors keeping players in the minor leagues for several weeks extra to slow down their major league service time. Players hate that. Additionally, they feel the cycle of teams rebuilding (aka tanking) is limiting payrolls. They would like some guardrails within the system to prevent those cycles. One good thing for the players: As long as there is no salary cap, the system will always pay the best of the best -- something the league likes to emphasize. Owners haven't even offered a hard cap during negotiations.

What does the lockout mean for free agency and trades? Are the winter meetings canceled?

Everything halts -- except that teams still can talk to one another. Conceivably, trades could be consummated during the lockout but not announced until after it ends. The major league portion of the winter meetings, scheduled for next week, are canceled. There would be little point to holding the meetings, since agents can't meet with teams. In fact, team personnel aren't even allowed to speak to the media about players on 40-man rosters during the lockout. (The minor league side of the meetings will continue.) Offseason drug testing will stop, as well, and pick up as soon as a new CBA is ratified.

Who are the leading figures on each side of the bargaining table?

Former big leaguer Tony Clark is the face of the players' union, while commissioner Rob Manfred is the same for the league. A lot of negotiating is done by their lieutenants, mainly lawyers Dan Halem for the league and Bruce Meyer for the players. Some owners are in on the meetings, while the executive board of the union consists of eight players: Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien, Gerrit Cole, Francisco Lindor, Jason Castro, Zack Britton, Andrew Miller and James Paxton. They report back to player reps for each team who will keep the rank and file informed as needed.

How much animosity is there?

Perhaps animosity is too strong of a word. There's definitely a disconnect. The league believes that major league baseball players have the best system among all professional sports unions -- starting with baseball not having a hard salary cap -- but is open to a few tweaks. The players want more dramatic change, beginning with ending the cycle of rebuilding. Some of the rhetoric from last summer's pandemic negotiations is probably shaping the public's perception of these, but at least the sides are talking. Is it all in good faith at the moment? Perhaps not, but they'll eventually get down to brass tacks and figure it out.

What are the key dates to watch out for as the lockout continues?

Not all teams have announced spring training report dates yet, but let's use Feb. 1 as a soft deadline for camps to open on time a little later that month. Even if there is a scramble, it would allow enough time for players to get where they need to be. The good news is that other than the winter meetings, the baseball calendar is pretty clear in December and January, so it's not like the shutdown will impact games or events. Essentially, the sides have up to two months to figure this out before issues start to arise. Pushing back the start of spring training could mean losing spring games, which means losing money. The dynamic between the sides may get ornery at that point -- if it isn't already by then.

What are some of the more radical changes to the game we could see as a result of a new CBA?

Let's start with an expanded postseason. The league wants 14 teams to make the playoffs with a creative attempt to incentivize winning. The best team in each league would receive a bye, while other division winners would get to choose their wild-card opponent. That's pretty dramatic. We could also see a pitch clock implemented and, eventually, further caps on the number of pitchers on a roster. Off the field, the nature of arbitration could change, as well as the age or service time in which a player becomes a free agent. The amateur draft could be in for a change as well. As for service-time manipulation, there may not be a compromise that fully solves that problem. Move back the date that gives a player a year of service time, and teams will just keep players in the minors longer.

Which side is likelier to get what it wants?
The system won't turn into a win-win for the players, but in terms of getting a few things moving in their favor, they should end up with something to be happy about. It could be in the form of an overhauled arbitration system, the designated hitter in the National League, a higher luxury-tax threshold or a quicker route to free agency. They just won't get all of those things.

https://youtu.be/YTKuwktc97c
https://youtu.be/6sXFs4d0elE

Kid hits bombs and has great plate discipline. Probably a RF/LF or 3B option in the MLB tho. Don't think he can play CF.

.

.

https://twitter.com/NBCSAthletics/status/1473042290092486658?s=20

There's no reason for tanking. They continue to negotiate in bad faith with Oakland, and expect the city subsidize them selling market rate housing. The org. is still holding out hope that can bamboozle LV into building a stadium for them.

I remember he hit for the cycle with the Braves…then they traded him to Boston for a dude whose name no one remembers.

I know he took some time off to deal with some undisclosed health issues for his daughter. But I was glad when he came back and glad he got the promotion.

He used to be a helluva center fielder. And he had that inside the park HR against the Twins in the play-offs.

https://sports.yahoo.com/team-owners-act-of-generosity-leaves-staff-speechless-in-tears-234338518.html

Team owner's act of generosity leaves staff 'speechless,' in tears
Jeff Eisenberg

On his final day as principal owner of the Iowa Cubs, Michael Gartner surprised his staff with an unforgettable goodbye gift.

He shared profits from the sale of the Des Moines-based minor-league baseball team with all 23 of the club’s full-time employees.

Gartner didn’t reveal his intentions until Tuesday evening during a staff-wide gathering inside a ballpark lounge overlooking left field. As some employees scarfed down hot dogs and sipped beer and others watched from afar via Zoom, Gartner punctuated an emotional farewell speech by unveiling a stack of envelopes.

“Here are your new business cards,” Gartner joked.

“Everyone knew something was up because of the way he said it,” Alex Cohen, the team’s lead broadcaster, said.

What was actually inside those envelopes were checks worth a total of approximately $600,000, general manager and minority owner Sam Bernabe told Yahoo Sports. Gartner, Bernabe and the other three members of the team’s ownership group determined how much each full-time staffer received based on how long he or she had worked for the Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate.

The generous gifts unleashed a flood of emotion from the recipients. The team’s longest-tenured employee had tears rolling down his cheeks. Everyone from marketing managers, to stadium operations workers, to the janitorial staff struggled to find words to thank Gartner and his partners.

“It was the single most genuine gesture I've ever seen,” Cohen said. “You work in sports and it's usually long hours and low pay. You’re not in it to make money. But this is an ownership group that really cares about its employees. And this gesture really typified that.”

Gartner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist and former president of NBC News, purchased the Iowa Cubs with his partners in 1999. Since then, the club has been the last stop before the Big Leagues for many Chicago Cubs luminaries including Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo.

While highly touted prospects have come and gone, Gartner’s ownership group has been the mainstays. Gartner, 83, has strove for years to maintain a cozy, family-friendly environment at Principal Park. Whether in his second-floor office or his lower-level seats, Gartner has often been present and hands-on yet never overbearing.

“ was infamous for saying to me all the time, ‘Let's do the right thing,’” Bernabe said “That's how we operated the business. It was my charge and my challenge to do all the things that he thought were right.”

For years, that simply meant offering employees generous retirement and healthcare plans or making sure they had adequate personal or vacation time. Then the COVID-19 pandemic shut down minor league baseball in 2020, and suddenly Gartner challenged Bernabe anew.

At a time when many cash-strapped Triple-A teams were furloughing or laying off their employees, Gartner sat down with Bernabe and told him firmly, “We aren’t going to let anyone go.” Gartner knew that his fellow owners would suffer a financial hit yet he once again he felt that it was the right thing to do.

“We got a little bit of PPP money and a little bit of help from the state of Iowa,” Bernabe said. “The rest was Michael and the ownership group.”

The decision paid off the following year when Bernabe had to reopen Principal Park while implementing new COVID-19 rules. Bernabe says it would have been “disastrous” to have to teach a whole new staff how to run a baseball team while also worrying about socially distant seating and locker room safety protocol.

As Gartner’s 83rd birthday approached in October, he and his partners began to explore the notion of selling the Iowa Cubs. He agreed to a deal with Endeavor, a California-based sports entertainment and marketing company that was in the process of also scooping up eight other minor league baseball clubs.

Given Gartner’s history of generosity, Bernabe wasn’t surprised when the outgoing owner approached him a few weeks ago with an idea for what to do with the sale proceeds. He proposed to Bernabe and the other minority owners to distribute the sale money among the Iowa Cubs’ employees.

“Everyone said, ‘Great, let's do that,” Bernabe said. “It was that easy.”

The reward for the ownership group was the response from their staff this past Tuesday evening.

“The overwhelming majority were very surprised,” Bernabe said. “I had a couple of them come up to me and thank me afterward and they had a hard time finding the words. They were speechless.”

It was a dumb idea anyway. And to be honest, I think it was just a ploy they used to threaten the city & fans. A whole lot of folks I know were saying hey would rather have the team leave than do this dual city idea. I certainly would have stopped following them if that crap happened.

They've got a couple of good sites around town. But I think that $1 billion price tag is gonna be the big issue. You gotta have some kind of roof on a stadium in Florida in the summer but I don't know if folks have the stomach to pay for it.

***

ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays’ proposed plan to split seasons in Montreal has been killed by Major League Baseball officials, creating even more uncertainty about the team’s long-term future in Tampa Bay.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred informed Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg on Tuesday that the league’s executive council rejected the innovative and controversial plan. The decision stunned team officials, who had spent 2 ½ years on the project and were expecting approval to proceed with efforts to get open-air stadiums built in both markets. The Rays also sought approval from the players union.

“We put everything we had into this effort because we truly believed in it — we thought it was great for the Rays, for our players, for Major League Baseball, for Montreal and Tampa Bay,” team president Brian Auld told the Tampa Bay Times. “And to have the rug pulled out from under us like this is extraordinarily disappointing.”

Rays officials now will reluctantly head down a path they have explored — and dismissed — previously: seeking a new full-time home in the Tampa Bay area. The lease agreement at Tropicana Field expires after the 2027 season and plans to build a new stadium would likely need to be in place by 2023 to be ready for opening day 2028.

Team officials said they have no immediate plans to ask permission from MLB to explore relocation to another market, and that Sternberg, who took over the team in 2005, has no plans to sell the team.

“Our focus has always been on how we can keep the Rays in Tampa Bay and have the franchise thrive for decades,” said Matt Silverman, another team president. “That is unchanged. …

“Today’s news isn’t positive, but it’s on us to turn it into a positive, and channel a lot of the support that we’ve received from throughout the community into our next effort and make that the successful one.”

As the Montreal plan took shape, Rays officials said it was their “only” option, and dismissed any chance of getting a new full-time home in the Tampa Bay area. The team strongly hinted that if a split season plan didn’t happen, leaving Tampa Bay would be a more likely scenario than remaining here full time.

Now — to the joy of those who disparaged the split city plan, some saying they would rather have no team than to share one — the Rays will again look at options around Tampa Bay.

They tried twice previously. In 2008, the team explored a waterfront stadium with a sail-like cover in downtown St. Petersburg. And in 2018, they considered a fixed-roof stadium in Tampa’s historic Ybor City. Now the teams says it welcomes new ideas in those or other locations.

The team had been in ongoing talks with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and other officials about building an open-air stadium on a different Ybor site as part of what was called the “sister city plan,” agreeing to contribute about half of the estimated $700 million cost.

A full-time stadium will require some type of roof and a larger footprint, and likely cost in excess of $1 billion. Sites throughout the area — in Tampa, in St. Petersburg, near the Hard Rock casino and others — likely will be reconsidered. Those options are likely to include the Tropicana Field site, though that would be complicated by a redevelopment plan that has been proposed — and approved by former Mayor Rick Kriseman. The plan does not currently include a stadium but could be modified to add one.

Alex Vadia, the lead partner of Miami’s Midtown Development — Kriseman’s preferred pick to redevelop the Trop site — said in a recent interview that he had yet to meet with the Rays about the potential for a stadium there.

“Any conversations were limited at best,” he said. “How can we design a stadium without the team’s input? But we look forward to working with them.”

Vadia said Midtown’s proposal had more than enough space for a new ballpark, in addition to everything else the city was looking to accomplish.

Now the Rays have to decide next steps.

“Our track record shows that we will look at anything and everything in our efforts to keep the team here,” Silverman said. “Nothing is on the table and everything is on the table at the same time. And together we get to forge the future of baseball in this community.”

The Rays came up with the split-season plan a few months after ending talks with Tampa area officials in December 2018. In the absence of a workable financial plan for the fixed-roof stadium, they saw it as a creative and trend-setting solution to split games between two sites. They created a partnership with Montreal business leader Stephen Bronfman to work that side of the deal, and invested considerable time, research and money in the project.

Despite winning consistently over the last 15 years, the Rays have been at or near the bottom in attendance and, as a result, in revenues and spending on payroll.

They saw the Montreal plan as a solution to those issues. It would provide the opportunity to take advantage of prime weather at different times of year and play baseball all season in open air stadiums that were less expensive to build. The team assumed they could increase revenues and player payroll, as the greater demand for tickets would lead to increased attendance and sponsorships. They also would have benefited from multiple TV and radio contracts.

Though final details remained to be worked out, the basics of the plan were for the Rays to play their spring training games and the first two months of the season at the Tampa Bay stadium, then move in early June to Montreal. There was some talk of making an early-season visit to Montreal and playing a late-season series or two in Tampa Bay. Postseason games were to be alternated between the host cities on an annual basis.

The plan had many critics and included several significant hurdles, including an agreement that needed to be negotiated with the players union (likely based on financial compensation for the players having to maintain two homes). The team also was trying to put together complicated high finance deals with multiple government entities in two countries to get the stadiums built.

They did not expect the death knell to come from MLB, as the eight-member executive council had given them permission in June 2019 to explore the split-city plan. Despite the ongoing lockout over a new labor agreement, team officials expected the league to give them the go-ahead to proceed, which they expected would help get the other parties on board.

Manfred certainly sounded in favor of the Montreal plan in a February 2020 interview, telling the Tampa Bay Times, “I am 100 percent convinced and, more importantly, the other owners have been convinced by Stu, that this is best way to keep Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay.”

“I continue to be impressed by the energy that they’ve devoted to the project,” Manfred added. “And to the fact there is significant receptivity among our group, and excitement in some quarters about the possibility.”

Rays officials said they were not made aware of what changed from Manfred’s earlier comments to the rejection of the plan.

As frustrated as they were, they said they will soon get back to work on finding another option.

“We’re absolutely committed to figuring it out,” Auld said. “If there’s one thing the Rays have been pretty good at over the years, it’s accomplishing things that people think we can’t do. So we’re going to bring every ounce of innovation and creativity and analysis we’ve got to solving this problem. I think we just did that in coming up with the sister city plan and while that’s no longer an option to us, we’ll use those resources and everything the organization’s got to keep the team here.”

And they don’t have much time.

“It’s no secret that as of now we don’t know where we’re playing on opening day of 2028. We don’t have a plan. There wasn’t a Plan B,” Auld said. “We certainly need to hurry up with this, and I believe we’ve got a lot of great partners in this community that want to see us be successful. We look forward to engaging in conversations with them in the very near future.”

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1498329966282518538?s=20&t=1pNSuW4Icv2f547iUXqp2A

We might not have a season for awhile

.

Lol the owners did 0 negotiating.

you have to be a silent, take-it accomplice to the owners' evil like Goodell, or a charming bullshitter (um, none really come to mind)

but Manfred is one tone-deaf, backpedal into his own dumb statement-mfer

not that this is his fault, he is just one of the worst faces you could put on this

ROAST these leech motherfuckers 'til they're beyond well done

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/nbcsports/cubs-ricketts-family-overcome-biblical-losses-mull-chelsea-bid/2776766/

"For all their talk about “biblical” losses during the pandemic and empty-pockets posturing since, the Cubs owners are reportedly looking into revisiting efforts to tap into the lucrative European soccer market and considering a bid for Chelsea.

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich reportedly seeks about $3.3 billion (U.S.) for his team as he looks to sell before war-related sanctions catch up to him — or roughly what the Ricketts family’s Cubs are worth, according to the latest Forbes estimate.

First reaction: Haven’t MLB’s blue bloods such as Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt, commissioner Rob Manfred and former Marlins carpetbagger David Samson been telling us that the business of baseball’s not as profitable as we think?

Second reaction: Obviously, they’re right. It’s far more profitable than we think."

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

legit shameless.

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1502015630966415361?s=20&t=ZjFuP70chDk6VTAdBylxOg

The signing freeze about to drop. Still some big names out there.

all season.

Like, seriously, what’s the fucking point?

And hey, DH for all!

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1503202290202685444?s=20&t=eK2rQ9JDFO8elqmdMzoHRQ

Gary Sanchez gone.
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1503197636156968960?s=20&t=eK2rQ9JDFO8elqmdMzoHRQ

at camp for the first time LOL

after they had the argument at Steele's house.

will miss about 3 months after surgery. UGH...that trick shoulder and now this.

Maybe the entire AL...although I still love the Guardians rotation.

Freddie gone, man...damn.
https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1503432838611456001?s=20&t=AkijuCdjkVMpYl7bdF6a5g

.

so, hit home runs and get paid...but not win? Cool.

Not only do Rockies fans have no idea why they’re signing Bryant while paying enough to the Cardinals for Arenado that Bryant’s AAV is effectively higher than Arenado’s, but Bryant is clearly on the Pujols in California side of his career even if it doesn’t decline quite as severely because the high isn’t quite as high.

Love it.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

They gave him the extra year Atlanta wouldn’t. Go fly, Freddie!!! 😭😭😭

I've kind of come to expect a plan out of Falvine. And thinning out the catching depth in order to acquire a pretty good shortstop, then spinning that pretty good shortstop with your starting thirdbasemen into a worse catcher than you started with and a worse shortstop than you acquired is pretty tough to track.

Unless it's just about the payroll relief, which can't be discarded because this is Minnesota. But they've been making the right noises about playing in the deep end of the pool and sort of backed it up with Donaldson and the Buxton extension. Explicitly telling people for decades that they had no interest in spending money worked perfectly fine, so if the public is good with that then there's no reason to gesture at it now and make yourself into liars.

But the actual moves that would make all this make sense are pretty high effort. I don't like assuming things about their intentions because I'm a hopeful person and that's not a good position to be in. But given the circular nature of the trades:

kiner-falefa > urshela
garver > sanchez
paying Donaldson 44mm < not paying Donaldson 44mm

... it feels reasonable to expect that they've identified a better shortstop, right? I don't feel crazy here. Not finding good shortstop solutions is really common. Teams do it all the time. But when you punt away a useful (at worst) shortstop right before spring training starts, it feels like an unambiguous statement that there are better options available. Since Lewis isn't ready and maybe isn't a shortstop and Martin isn't ready and maybe isn't a shortstop and the team isn't pretending either of those things isn't true - then all we've got left to consider is names the Twins never consider: Trevor Story and Carlos Correa.

But posting about "what if Trevor Story or Carlos Correa played for my favorite team" isn't really a normal thing to do for a Twins fan, so I'm just going to wait and see what happens. No reason to spill 500 words on an all-star if I'm just going to turn around and pretend that whatever corpse they decide to reanimate is actually a smart and good decision. This could all be really fun. Will probably be kind of stupid.

Essentially a 1 year deal for $35M with the 2 opt outs after the first and second years.

Looks like Boras hit him with a dose of that good honesty: between a COVID-shortened season in 20202, the lockout, and Trevor Story giving teams an opportunity to play things close to the vest, he wasn't going to get that 10/350mm mega deal this winter. So, he still gets a huge annual value, guaranteed for three years if he needs it, and if he plays like the MVP shortstop he's obviously got the talent for, then he opts out and gets that mega deal next winter. Or the winter after.

And if you're the Twins and you literally don't have a starting shortstop except for the possibility that either of Royce Lewis/Austin Martin pulls off hitting to their potential and sticking at short* then you get a legit contender to put up 6-7 wins. If he doesn't do that, then you just pencil in the same expectation for 2023 since he's young and sublimely talented. Or you trade him and recoup a huge bundle.

Feels like a good deal for everybody involved. Still can't believe it happened. Weirdly doesn't actually make the Twins a good team quite yet, though that lineup is going to ruin a lot of weekends for opposing pitching staffs. Pitching staff is obviously a big weakness, though the bullpen has the capability to be fine and I'm higher on Joe Ryan than just about anybody. The Gray/Ryan front looks like a good way to start a playoff series to me, but you've got to actually get there and I kind of hate the rotation depth for that. Going after one of those starters that Oakland is dangling would be nice, but I'm hardly going to hold my breath for another huge move. Correa's probably it on that front for the rest of the decade.

*Both outcomes probably impossible for 2022. Former outcome is kind of likely, with the usual "prospects are complicated" variance and the latter outcome is, at this point, extremely unlikely

...and lost.

Those $200M-$300M deals were just not there for them when you add a loss from the Pandemic on top of a new CBA

.

Final season for Yadi. Final season for Waino. LFG!