Balta1701

Bryce Harper or Manny Machado would be fine additions. We clearly need at least 2 free agent pitchers on 1 year deals. There is simply no way around this, we do not have the human power. Frankly, we should get 2 free agent pitchers and then someone a-la Santiago last year who can be a sacrificial lamb when guys get hurt or have bad outings in the first inning. After last season, I also wouldn't complain about Moustakas if we miss out on Machado, and you could probably convince me to go a couple years for him, since there's no obvious sign that we have any help coming any time soon at 3b. But, you said it yourself...FA that "Don't...block key guys". I would call Kopech and Cease key guys, so right there you just made my case to stay away from pitchers on multi-year deals, like Eovaldi, because those are our key guys and we shouldn't block them.

Looking back at the White Sox's performance for the last 10 seasons...I have some bad news for you about the people who are in charge and how aggressive moves for mid-level free agents work out.

Do I get to count guys we traded for? Because that's Cleveland's blueprint. The only major free agent signings on their world series team were Rajai Davis and Mike Napoli.

Do you think that 25 is the correct number to consider when you're talking about a guy likely to get $15 million per year? No one cares if your backup catcher or 5th reliever comes from outside the system.

And that point should be when we have a strong roster ready to win substantial numbers of baseball games on its own, where we're adding one or two pieces at the end to finish the roster off.

Why yes I would like to have won one of the previous 3 world series I would have liked that very much.

Which part, the World Series trophy or the World Series Rings?

I think you're underestimating the Yankees. This is a team that has paid the luxury tax every single year of it's existence except 1. Right now, they have ~$165 million under contract - they need 2 big signings just to bring them back up to the tax level. And while their arb costs are going to be high, at the end of 2020 the contracts for Ellsbury and Tanaka end, so even with guys hitting arbitration, their payroll goes down rather than up. Their commits are about $120-$130 million for 2019, 2020, and 2021, including arbitration for guys. The tax level will be about $210 million for the next several years, and their revenue has continued going up. They could buy 3 $25 mil/year players this year without really taxing themselves.

If we don't sign another RF I can't object to this very strongly, but step 1 in making this happen is not offering him arbitration because Arbitration will guarantee him something like $8 million or more. By definition, not offering him arbitration is going to make him a free agent. 29 other teams would have the opportunity to offer him a similar contract. I'm not sure whether or not any of them will, that will depend on what happens in the market before January.

Didn't they just take on an additional investor(s) to raise funds for exactly that sort of move, to free up cash?

Why would that quash Machado to the Yankees talk? They're the Yankees, they could up their payroll by $100 million this year and they might even still stay under the tax, but we know they'll pay the tax to win. They could take on both of those, sign Corbin, and sign Machado.

Well not for all these teams. The Rockies were just mentioned. The 2018 payroll for the Rockies was $141 million, that's the highest they've ever had, beating their 2017 number by $10 million. Already, before they make another move, the Rockies have $140 million committed this offseason unless they do something wild like trading Arenado. Things like that are buried in "easy", it's only easy if you're willing to boost your payroll $50 million higher than it's ever been for one year.

Also worth noting - the Nats payroll was $180 million to start the year last year during a rough year. Right now, without Harper, they already have $160 million-ish committed for next year.

THE FIRST BAD THING EVER TO HAPPEN BECAUSE OF DEEP DISH

Bah, we're going to hear that we're out of it at least 5 more times before either of them actually signs. At some point Bruce Levine will share that we're right in the mix with the strongest offer or something like that and we'll cover 20 pages of posts in about 30 minutes, then nothing will happen for another 3 days and we'll hear that they're both signing with the Yankees, then 3 more days will pass before anything official goes down.

Before he fell apart physically, he put up 6 fWAR in a 2 year stretch for the A's.

ARoid got all that for 10 years, got something like $400 million for the privilege, and now he's an MLB analyst.

Even if he has a really good first half, no one is trading a "Haul" for a weak defensive 1b/DH under control for 3 months or less with an annual salary of $18 million a year. You might get something for him, but not a lot.

I went back to 2013 and found no year where the Astros were listed as receiving a competitive balance pick, what year did I miss? 2013/2014, 2015 , 2016, 2017/2018.

Then let's see him turn around a really bad, injury riddled season next year and we'll talk. If he can't, then next season there are other options on the market who performed better this year who will be available for that same money.

But you just said that Anderson would be traded to the Yankees for pitching/prospects, so you've got the Yankees needing pitching on one hand but then giving up pitching for Anderson on the other.

How much do we really think the Yankees care about blowing up their budget?

Because he gets an additional $200 million guaranteed and then negotiates another 3 year opt out so that he has one more chance to hit the market at age 32?

2029 with a team option for 2030.