Off Season 2019- 20

That would be affordable insurance.

From MLB Trade Rumors:

4. Zack Wheeler – Phillies. Five years, $100MM

For teams seeking ace potential without the Gerrit Cole price tag, Wheeler is the top choice. Though the 29-year-old’s 3.96 ERA this season doesn’t jump off the page, he’s displayed the ability to miss bats and added a career-best walk rate. Over his past 350 innings, Wheeler is sporting a 3.47 ERA and a 3.27 FIP with a strikeout per inning and just 2.4 walks per nine. He’s also one of the hardest-throwing starting pitchers in the game, averaging 96.7 mph this year on his fastball. The Statcast profile on Wheeler is strong, with above average fastball and curveball spin rate and low exit velocity and hard-hit percentage.
Wheeler was drafted sixth overall by the Giants out of high school in 2009, joining the Mets in a July 2011 trade for Carlos Beltran. He had Tommy John surgery in March 2015 and wound up going two and a half years between Major League starts. Wheeler has made 60 starts in the last two campaigns, so the surgery is firmly in the rearview mirror.

Though the free agent market has tightened up considerably since Jeff Samardzija signed four years ago, there would seem to be enough competition to get Wheeler to the heights of that five-year, $90MM contract or even take it to the next level. Wheeler received a qualifying offer from the Mets, who seem unlikely to be able to fit him into their budget. The Phillies, Twins, Nationals, Braves, Brewers, Cubs, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox, Astros, Angels, and Rangers could be part of his robust market.


23. Drew Pomeranz – Dodgers. Two years, $16MM

Most free agent markets have a buzzworthy reliever, and this year it’s Pomeranz. A former first round pick of the Indians, the southpaw had some solid seasons in relief for the A’s before finding his footing as a starter with the Padres and Red Sox. Pomeranz posted a 3.32 ERA over 62 starts from 2016-17, but his 2018 season was decimated by a forearm flexor strain and biceps tendinitis. He hooked on with the Giants for just a $1.5MM guarantee, but failed in a starting role for San Francisco and was shipped to the Brewers at the 2019 deadline.

From August 2nd onward, Pomeranz was an utterly dominant reliever for Milwaukee. His fastball velocity ticked up to 95-96 miles per hour as Pomeranz struck out nearly half of batters faced, more than Josh Hader during that time. The eye-opening showing, less than 30 innings in total, could even net Pomeranz a three-year deal.


46. Rich Hill – Dodgers. One year, $6MM

Hill’s three-year deal with the Dodgers went about as well as could have been expected, with a 3.30 ERA in 327 innings and another 37 innings in the postseason. When he’s able to take the mound, he’s produced huge strikeout rates, with the 13th-best overall percentage among starting pitchers during that three-year period. Still, since returning to prominence in 2016, Hill has gone on the IL nine times and missed a total of 322 days due to injuries. Aside from the recurrent blisters that accompany his chart-topping spin rates, Hill missed almost three months this year due to a forearm strain. Hill, who’ll turn 40 in March, seems likeliest to return to the Dodgers or go back to his hometown Red Sox on an incentive-heavy one-year deal.


www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/11/mlb-free-agent-predictions-2020.html

Oooops!

Guys that really should not get a pay raise and should be moved based on what is on the team and what they bring are:

1. Joc, there are too many better outfield options. 
2. Kike, he is redundant as the team has Taylor and now Negron.
3. Baez, is he really a $3.3 million dollar reliever? Seems to be better in lower level situations than higher.
4. Yimi, $1.1 million for allowing a bomb every other time he relieves.

Surely there has to be better relievers at those prices than Baez and Yimi and even Alexander who is on the bubble for me.

Dodgers
Column: Dodgers need to focus on truths rather than beliefs this offseason

By Bill Plaschke / Columnist

Nov. 5, 2019 6:18 PM

During most of the last seven championship seasons, the Dodgers built their team around three unwavering beliefs:

Clayton Kershaw is unhittable, Kenley Jansen is invincible and their homegrown talent is untouchable.

Those beliefs have guided them to hundreds of victories, numerous champagne celebrations, two appearances in the World Series and one victory from a championship.

Those beliefs also have ridden them into ruin.

They have snatched losses out of October victories, drained Dodger Stadium of October magic and ultimately deadened a city with seven straight ugly October ejections.

In the wake of a fourth consecutive October boot by the eventual World Series champion, the Dodgers need to cast aside those beliefs and face their future with three new truths.

The truth is Kershaw is no longer your ace. He is best suited to pitch third in the rotation, and that leaves a glaring hole that can be filled only with the acquisition of a top starting pitcher to pair with Walker Buehler. (Gerrit Cole, are you reading?)

The truth is Jansen is no longer your slam-the-door closer. He must at least share those duties, and that provides the mandate to add bullpen pieces that can produce another closer.

The Dodgers’ biggest need this offseason isn’t a change in their roster, it’s a change in their belief system. Without these new acceptances, they cannot take new steps. Without a change in the story line, they cannot change the ending.

Kershaw will be forever slumped on the dugout bench, Jansen will be forever staring back over the outfield wall, Seager will be endlessly striking out, and strangers will be eternally celebrating on the middle of your field.

Andrew Friedman called this October’s sudden exit “heartbreaking,” and after five consecutive heartbreaks under his watch, here’s hoping the baseball boss is finally willing to challenge some of his Dodgers gospel.

And the truth is not all of your homegrown position players have matured into dudes who thrive in October, so if you need to trade Corey Seager or Joc Pederson to acquire a right-handed batter, do it.

They have the money; their payroll projects to be under the competitive balance tax. They have the trade chips; the organization has never been better stocked. Now they must rework their perspective to reshape the team.

“I think we have depth to make trades, I think we have financial flexibility,” Friedman told reporters at his season-ending news conference. “I think that’s a really good position to be in.”

Their position starts with the realities of Kershaw. He will be 32 next season, his earned-run average has climbed the last four summers, and his legacy is stuck on those stubborn October blues.

Even though he finished 16-5 with a 3.03 ERA this season, he’s not the same pitcher he once was. And he’s certainly not a pitcher to be completely trusted in the postseason, with his 4.43 ERA and so many predictable meltdowns.

The Dodgers surely know it. Now they need to act on it. The loyalty they showed by bringing out Kershaw in the eighth inning of a National League Division Series Game 5 with the Washington Nationals? That has to end, now.

After his two-pitch debacle against the Nationals, some of you — maybe many of you — would be fine if the Dodgers traded him. Forget it. It’s hard to imagine them ever trading Kershaw unless he demands it. But they can no longer build their pitching staff around him, and they certainly cannot blink about spending big money to find an arm to fill his top-of-the-rotation void.

“I think Kersh is not the same exact pitcher he was three years ago,” Friedman acknowledged, but added, “I still think he had a really good year.”
He continued: “I can’t remember feeling better about any one player than Kershaw in terms of how much he cares, how much he prepares and how much he pours into it.”

So, no, Kershaw is not going anywhere. But he does need to be taken off the pedestal so someone else can join Buehler there.

As for Jansen, well, Friedman pretty much said what everyone has been thinking. This is one belief that the Dodgers are ready to shed.

“I’m excited of what he’s capable of next year and feel like he’ll be a big part of us winning games,” Friedman said. “Exactly what that role is, I don’t know right now.”

The team’s new perception of Jansen was cemented when he didn’t enter Game 5 of the NLDS until the outcome was decided. But before that, the Dodgers seemingly spent the entire season afraid to acquire another closer because they didn’t want to make Jansen feel threatened.

That can’t happen again. It never should have happened in the first place. If they had another closer, the Game 5 implosion doesn’t occur. If they had another closer, neither Kershaw nor Joe Kelly would be pitching in those high-leverage situations.

Paying big money for the back of the bullpen is not always the best investment, as the Dodgers proved last offseason when they gave $25 million to Kelly.

Maybe this offseason they don’t necessarily need to sign a free agent like Will Smith. But they need to rework the bullpen so there are enough viable arms that somebody other than Jansen can prove worthy of taking the mound in the ninth inning.

Finally, there is the issue of the kids. It might be time to pull some off the apron strings.

Before Kershaw’s Game 5 gopher balls, the defining scene of that series with the Nationals was Seager striking out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 4-2 Dodgers loss in Game 2. Seager batted .150 in the series. He has a .203 postseason average and has never conquered impatience at the plate.

The stalling of Seager’s injury-riddled career matches the frustration in Pederson’s career, which features a .239 postseason average despite seven postseason home runs.

The left-handed-hitting Pederson has hit 114 of his 123 home runs against right-handed pitchers, including all 36 last season. Like Seager, who had 19 home runs and 87 runs batted in, he’s a great guy to have around, but if the Dodgers can get a powerful right-handed hitter in a trade for either or both of them, that would be a deal worth considering.

No matter who is shipped out, expect the Dodgers to bring in a right-handed bat this offseason because Friedman wasn’t thrilled with another postseason bust by the left-handed-heavy lineup. The Dodgers had a .220 average and .303 on-base percentage against the Nationals.

Friedman thought he found the answer last offseason when he signed right-handed-hitting A.J. Pollock, who produced 11 strikeouts in 13 hitless postseason at-bats. Friedman is going to have to try again.

“It definitely fell short of my hopes in terms of how the team offense would kind of adapt and tackle the difficulties of October pitching,” Friedman said. “I think hopefully it’s another one of those areas we can focus on this offseason.”

Adapt and tackle. For a Dodgers front office facing another offseason of reckoning, that sounds like a plan.

If that’s a current photo of Tyler White, he’s definitely slimmed down significantly from the last time we saw him lumbering down the first base line on an infield grounder.

Good for him! And whatever he’s taking or doing to get back in shape, I want a piece of!

GO DODGERS!!!

I read that he had a thyroid problem that made him lose all that weight in like 3 weeks.

I'm sure dude is going to get reps and an opportunity to show himself playing some 1st with Muncy.