There are more scrap heap signings yet to come, I think.
There might also be a trade.
There might even be a panic move at some point early in the season...
When the payroll's pushing 250 mill and the farm is depleted, it does tie your hands a wee bit.
Besides, he didn't need to do much more for the 2018 team than what he did.
As far as Manny vs. Bogaerts - Manny may be the bigger talent, but I think I'd rather have Xander. Some of that's homerism, no doubt, but the guy's been with us since 2013, played on 2 championship teams, really hit the ball well this year.
I honestly don't know if the price is going to get that much higher. It's January 16. If there was going to be a bidding war it would have taken place by now. There's something a little odd going on here. It could be that Manny really did himself in with his behaviors.
What teams? LOL
For starters he preserved the lead in games 1 and 4 of the ALDS against the Yanks.
Just check his postseason game log on Baseball-Reference.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=barnema01&t=p&post=1
Well, Barnes pitched fantastically well last postseason.
8.2 IP allowing a slash line of 103/257/207.
Vastly better than Kimbrel's line, needless to say.
Which doesn't mean he'll be a great closer, but it speaks well of his ability to pitch under pressure.
Put it this way: at $30 million or even $35 million, it's quite likely that Mookie will give full value and more through the first half of his contract at least.
True, but for a while it looked like Kelly might not even make the playoff roster. (Fortunately Cora knew much better.) And CK was bad in the playoffs.
It's a funny old game LOL