In 2018 the Cubs had 5 relievers with an AAV of $3.5 million or more-Morrow, Cishek, Strop, J Wilson and Duensing. Their total AAV was about $32 million. If Theo is the man, doesn't this suggest it's a sound strategy to spend a bit on the pen?
What's funny about this particular discussion is that Dombrowski was so heavily criticized by many for not devoting enough attention to the pen in Detroit's years of contention.
Ben devoted huge resources to acquiring an established closer. Theo has also invested huge resources in his pen starting in 2016 with the trade for Chapman.
I kind of like moon's idea of signing Cody Allen. Assuming our scouts and analytics guys have figured out what went wrong with him last year and how to fix it.
As I said in the other thread, this is not just DD's MO. It's no different from what Theo or Ben would do in this position, if you look at their histories.
It's not something Theo or Ben would do, either. If you look at their histories, most years Theo and Ben went into the season having invested pretty heavily in the bullpen through signings or trades.
Kind of a false equivalency, I think. Bogaerts is going to be looking for $200 million or so. Signing Kimbrel wouldn't be the difference-maker in keeping Bogey or not. It's not like if we sign Kimbrel we'll have an expensive bullpen compared to other teams. Right now we have a very inexpensive bullpen.
That's a plausible scenario, except I don't think the Phillis would have gone as high as 350 million. I think the numbers will come in lower than that.
How about 8 years, 280 million, opt out after 3. That would be the best contract offer in history based on the AAV and the opt out.
I agree that Theo was excellent at that.
But it must also be noted that the rules in this area have changed substantially, and the 'reward' for letting a free agent walk is pretty small now.
I really don't know what the answer is. I think any rules we could come up with are going to be arbitrary to some degree. You're always going to get different opinions from different people.
We've already heard that one of the voters isn't going to vote for Rivera.
Should David Ortiz be in? Schilling? I think they should be, but I realize they are not clear-cut choices.
I think Kimbrel is in for a big letdown. His numbers were just not very good last year, especially when you include his postseason numbers, which were downright horrible of course.
I can definitely see him having to settle for $60 million.