MLB - NEWS & NOTES

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays said they didn't intend to just hand a starting job to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. this spring, and they proved it by signing veteran Freddy Galvis to a one-year contract on Tuesday afternoon.

Galvis is expected to compete with Gurriel for the starting shortstop position after he agreed to the deal worth $4 million. The contract also includes a $5.5 million club option for 2020, which contains a $1 million buyout, according to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. (MLB.com)

 

Ken Rosenthal and Robert Murray of The Athletic report that the Arizona Diamondbacks are soon to sign reliever Greg Holland.

Holland split time with the Cardinals and Nationals last year, and it was as if he was two different pitchers. In St. Louis he posted a ghastly 7.92 ERA over 32 appearances while watching his strikeout rate go way down, his walk rate going way up and his hits per nine innings almost doubling. It was just a nightmare. He was released by the Cardinals on August 1 and signed with the Nationals a few days later and everything turned around: in 24 games he posted a 0.84 ERA, a 0.891 WHIP and a K/BB ratio of 25/10 in 21.1 innings.

Will the real Greg Holland stand up in 2019? The Dbacks are betting on it.

 

i think harper signs in a week or so. once he falls the rest will follow. once the phillies land 1, they will sign others like keuchal and maybe kimbrel...

 

i think harper signs in a week or so. once he falls the rest will follow. once the phillies land 1, they will sign others like keuchal and maybe kimbrel...

i would love them to trade herrera and star prospects medina and sanchez for kluber !

 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...d-several-mlb-players-are-not-happy-about-it/

this is bullshit. this isn't a second chance as the commish states. it's his fourth chance as he had 3 under the mlb drug system and pardon the bad pun but he failed 3 times and 3 times and you're out. why even have a suspension list if cheaters like meija get let back in ? wow commish i didn't think u could be this dumb???

 

He's invited to Spring training also...

 

The Rockies announced that the club and third baseman Nolan Arenado have avoided arbitration. They agreed to a $26 million salary for the 2019 season, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. Arenado was eligible for arbitration in his third and final year. $26 million represents a new record for an arbitration-eligible player, breaking the previous record of $23 million, which Josh Donaldson got from the Blue Jays last year.

As recently as last week, it was thought that the two sides wouldn’t be able to come to an agreement and would be headed to an arbitration hearing in February. Arenado filed for $30 million while the Rockies countered at $24 million.

Arenado, 27, is one of the best players in baseball, so it is not surprising that he set a new arbitration record. Last season, he hit .297/.374/.561 with 38 home runs, 110 RBI, and 104 runs scored in 673 plate appearances. Arenado won his sixth consecutive NL Gold Glove at third base, made the All-Star team for the fourth consecutive year, and he finished third in NL MVP balloting behind Chrisitan Yelich and Javier Báez.

With Arendo headed to free agency after the 2019 season, the Rockies are on the clock getting him to agree to a contract extension. If they can’t, the club will almost certainly have to pursue trading him at the non-waiver trade deadline, particularly if they’re out of contention. (NBC)

 

Angels general manager Billy Eppler told reporters on Thursday that Shohei Ohtani will not be ready for Opening Day.

Not the biggest shock in the world given that he had Tommy John surgery in October, but it’s not like the rehab for coming back to just hit, as Ohtani will do exclusively in 2019, is as long as it is for pitching. Eppler did not give a timetable for Ohtani’s return to DH duties, but assuming nothing goes wrong, he is expected to hit for most of the year.

Assuming he does, it should be a boon to the Angels’ lineup. The Rookie of the Year posted a batting line of .285/.361/.564 (152 OPS+) with 22 home runs — 13 of them coming in August and September — 61 RBI, 59 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases in 367 plate appearances in 2018. (NBC, Hardball Talk)

 

read a great article on the whole harper/machado thing. they expected offers of over $300-350 mil. very little if any came in. they stlll might get it but i think the majority of offers are under $300 mil, so that is why they are deciding what to do etc.

 

MLB proposes three-batter minimum; MLBPA proposes NL DH in 2019...

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have sent proposals to each other focusing on ways to improve the game, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. MLB’s biggest suggestion would create a three-batter minimum for pitchers in an effort to reduce the amount of pitching changes made by managers, oftentimes grinding the game to a halt — particularly if it’s a mid-inning substitution.

Among the union’s suggestions is a universal designated hitter beginning this year. According to Rosenthal, citing commissioner Rob Manfred, the union has been trying to get the DH in the National League for more than three decades. The American League adopted the DH rule in 1973.

The union also suggested lowering a team’s draft position if it fails to reach a certain number of wins across multiple seasons. That would address the issue of tanking which has plagued baseball for close to a decade.

Per Rosenthal, if the union and MLB don’t reach an agreement, Manfred still has the power to unilaterally implement three rules changes he proposed last year: a 20-second pitch clock, reducing mound visits from six to five, and placing a runner on second base to start extra innings beyond the 10th inning in spring training games and the All-Star Game. In the current proposal MLB sent to the MLBPA, the league seeks to reduce mound visits from six to four in 2019 and then down to three in 2020. The league also seeks, for the 2020 season, to expand to a 26-man roster while reducing expanded rosters in September from 40 to 28.

These ideas are certainly interesting, to say the least. I’m not sure I buy any of them as they are presented. Implementing a universal DH rule with less than two months before the start of the regular season seems unfair to NL teams that don’t have the right roster construction and wouldn’t have enough time to properly address it. That being said, a universal DH would help boost offense, which has been lagging for most of this decade.

Creating a three-batter minimum would reduce scenarios like the one Rosenthal mentions in his article — Brewers manager Craig Counsell using lefty Wade Miley for one batter before replacing him with right-hander Brandon Woodruff in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Dodgers — but it would limit managerial strategy, which is one of the aspects of baseball that, at least in this writer’s humble opinion, make it interesting. Perhaps a better alternative would be to create a discrete limit on the amount of pitchers a team can carry on its active roster. If we make that number, say, 12 on a 26-man roster, then teams still have the flexibility to make their pitching changes when they want to, but they would have to consider a faster depletion of resources.

Speaking of the 26-man rosters: great idea. One more active roster spot creates at minimum 30 more major league jobs across the league, which is terrific in and of itself. The added space may make teams more willing to sign less-versatile players, as we’ve seen a dearth of interest in power-hitting first-base types in recent years in favor of more versatile, defensively-capable players.

Shrinking the September rosters from 40 to 28 would hurt prospects and so-called “AAAA” players — players who aren’t quite good enough to make a regular 25-man roster, but are more than good enough to handle Triple-A competition. September call-ups accrue service time just like any other player and since there would be 360 fewer spots available, at least 360 players would have slower progress towards arbitration and free agency. On the other hand, September is a critical month of the season for obvious reasons, and it is often marred when teams that are dead in the water don’t try to win since they have the opportunity to give their younger, less experienced players major league at-bats and innings. Teams in the hunt for a playoff spot that just happened to get lucky and play fourth- and fifth-place teams in September get what are essentially free wins against these teams. Teams that aren’t so lucky may miss out on a playoff spot through no fault of their own.

The best idea of the bunch is the penalty for teams failing to hit a certain win threshold over multiple seasons. It is unclear if the suggestion is that a team must hit at least X wins once in a span of Y years, or an aggregate total of Z wins over Y years. Either way, incentivizing teams to be at least somewhat competitive is a good thing. It will reduce teams shamelessly tanking and it very likely would also prevent teams from shamelessly manipulating the service time of their top prospects. Ah, who are we kidding? Teams are going to game players’ service time until there’s an explicit rule changing it.

 

^^wow some bold ass steps there! if approved the game of baseball will be changed a lot. shocking to read.

 

It's probably time for the game to be changed a lot. I have an even more radical plan, did I ever post it here before?

 

My proposal:

DH in both leagues, BUT pitchers hit in both leagues, as well (10 man batting order). Regulation games are 7 innings instead of 9.

 

that's radical. i like the other rules they mentioned of the 3 man pitch limit and cutting down rosters etc. the game needs changes. i hope they approve of them.

 

Yes and then they're signing Arenado and Trout next year, right?

 

Union wouldn't go for this because you'd reduce plate appearances, probably, for a lot of players.

 

I don't like the 3 batter minimum idea at all.

 

Pitch clock I'm totally on board with.

I personally hate the DH but it's eventually gonna happen so all the pissing and moaning in the world doesn't really matter.

They've talked of lowering the mound as well and I'm also not really on board there.