You guys are going to have a rare chance to almost totally remake your team this winter while keeping many of your young rising stars and Stanton.
Free Agents- To- Be:
$14.8 McCutchen
$13.0 Happ
$13.0 Robertson
$12.0 Britton
$12.0 Lynn
$10.0 Sabathia
$5.9M Hechavarria
$4.0M Walker
Last arbs
$8.5M Gregorius
$6.5M Gray
$5.1M Betances
$2.8M Hicks
$1.1M Romine
Tax Dollars
$22.0M Stanton (with $3m paid by MIA)
$22.1M Tanaka
$21.8M Ellsbury
$17.2M Chapman
Club Option
$12.5M Gardner or $2M buyout.
You'll have some hefty arb costs, but with basically no limit on spending next year with your tax rate reset, it's going to be a signing fest for you guys.
I wonder how many will turn out like Ellsbury.
I remember bashing him earlier in the year, and you defended him due to his pretty nice OBP. He was over .350 as late as July 7th and over .340 as late as August 13th, but he's down to .327-- not bad for a back-up OF'er, but not goof for your lead off hitter.
I think there's a strong enough relationship between the two subjects, since many felt making JD happy by trading JBJ made the trade worth it, especially when factoring in what we might have gotten back for JBJ (improved pitching/2B/depth).
I like JD where he is. Keep him healthy. Keep our OF intact for as long as possible.
It killed me when we traded Lynn.
Let's see how we do on the road against a team fighting to make the playoffs.
It's not a must win series, but I'd like to see start to turn things around, soon.
I had him there before his last outing.
I really feel his knee issues were what was keeping him down for years. As long as the knee is okay, he's an awesome pitcher.
Nothing against Porcello. I'd be happy with him as our #3, too, but I like ERod more. Plus, we win with ERod.
We're 17-3 in his starts (5.9 run support).
We're 18-10 in Porcello's starts (5.91 run support).
(Not that this is all I look at.)
I feel the same, and I doubt JD feels that way or would make those sort of demands. I also think a ring might make him want to stay and like the idea of extending his career by DH'ing most of the time.
To be frank, it was one thing that worried me most about the negotiations with him and his agent.
No, Nunez is who we were talking about, but also Holt could get some action, too.
(When Devers plays 3B, Nunez could play some at 2B or be on the bench.