I chose to write about the meetings at the end because of two reasons. The first being that it was expected that the meetings would be relatively slow this year, and that was true. Secondly, a lot of the moves that teams make sometimes lead to reactionary moves which changes the entire landscape of their decision making.
The perfect opening for the Atlanta Braves. They went ahead and offered both of their premier relievers, Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano arbitration. They are both Type A free agents, but I clearly expected a lot of interest in those guys because they are impact arms and teams can’t ever get enough of those. There has been no movement from the Mike Gonzalez camp, but I think the likelihood of a team offering him big dollars and giving up a pick is higher than Soriano just because he is a lefty with good stuff, rather than a righty with good stuff.
Soriano, however, accepted arbitration after the Braves had already made plans that both guys would sign contracts elsewhere. By signing both Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner to one year deals, the Braves couldn’t afford to take on the $8MM that Soriano would be paid through his arbitration hearing. So what did they do? They spun him off to Tampa Bay, and received Jesse Chavez, who was the player in the Akinori Iwamura trade.
This is really a brilliant trade for both sides. Atlanta gets a quality arm at a cheap cost, and Tampa Bay gets their closer at the cost of a guy who didn’t fit into their lineup. Now this bumps everybody in the Tampa bullpen down a notch, and puts them in the places they belong. Dan Wheeler is not a closer, but Soriano has the stuff to be a very successful closer for Tampa and I look for him to nail down 30-35 saves if he stays healthy. Atlanta now gets a guy with a quality arm in Chavez, and takes $8MM off their books.
Oh and by the way, don’t forget that Tampa Bay doesn’t give up a first round pick for Soriano, that right there is a small detail flying under the radar. Now if they can only get rid of that disgusting contract of Pat Burrell they will be in great shape. Willy Aybar should be the DH this year, and should have been last year. If the Rays are smart, they should look into trading Carl Crawford sooner than later. It will be close to impossible for them to resign Crawford, and I doubt he will want to come back after so many horrible years in Tampa. The value they could get in return for Crawford would be enormous. These are the types of movies that small market teams have to make in order to stay competitive. Look what the Tigers just got for Curtis Granderson! Granderson isn’t the complete player that Crawford is, even if Crawford is a couple of years older than him.
Scott Boras reminds me of this: If you always lie over and over, eventually you will start to believe your own lies. Well, everybody seems to be calling him crazy at his overrating and high contract demands of Rick Ankiel and Adrian Beltre. But one thing that simply amazes me, is he always finds somebody to sip on some of that crazy juice and spend big dollars on his guys. Why should he try and level with the GM’s and play into their hands? Hey, it’s easy to call the guy crazy but I constantly marvel at how the guy does it year in and year out. He is worth every dollar from a player perspective.
I’m not going to go on and on about the mega deal between Arizona, Detroit and New York Yankees because there is a ton of stuff written about it all over the place. I do think that everyone harping on Arizona GM Josh Byrnes for making this deal are missing the point. Max Scherzer is NOT Edwin Jackson. Jackson is a front of the rotation starter who is still relatively young and not overly expensive. Ian Kennedy was awful in the AL East, and for reason. He doesn’t have great stuff and he won’t light up the radar screen, but in the NL West he will be a serviceable No. 5 starter who comes very very cheap.
Scherzer is a Scott Boras guy, and is coming up to that point in his career where he’ll start to command some big dollars himself. Arizona is going for the throat this year because of the Dodgers situation, and I love the aggressive approach. Yes, Scherzer has great stuff but he hasn’t shown the ability to command it and put it together yet. Jackson was one of the best starters in the AL in the first half this year not named Zack Greinke. Detroit gets guys who have flashy names, but in all reality the ONLY player who has the ability to be an impact guy is Edwin Jackson. Curtis Granderson is a nice guy who hits righties well, but he can’t hit left hander’s and the league will punish him for that in key spots. If I’m a manager in the NL West, the thought of going into a playoff series against Dan Haren, Edwin Jackson and Brandon Webb I am very scared. Check back with me at the end of the 2010 season and put this one in the books: I think Arizona got the best deal.
One more small note. The situation in Dodger camp is really sad. They are so close to being a great team, and the divorce is totally destroying it. Not offering arbitration to Randy Wolf is the same as writing on the front page of the LA Times that fans shouldn’t waste their time showing up this season. If Chad Billingsley can start to command his stuff a little better and lower his pitch counts he is a legitimate ace. Between Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw their rotation only needed a few minor tweaks to win that division. Their window is short. Soon Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and others will be up for arbitration and they won’t come cheap.
Another thing about the situation in LA. Manny Ramirez has his legacy in his hands this coming season. He is set to make $20MM, and had a pretty forgettable season last year in the midst of the PED scandal and the fact that he simply didn’t produce and his bat looked awfully slow.
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