harmony

If Christian Vazquez is traded, who is the starting catcher for the 2021 Red Sox? Kevin Plawecki?

Would the Tampa Bay trade for catchers Francisco Mejia and Blake Hunt lessen the Rays' rumored interest in Christian Vazquez?

The small sample size of three starts disqualifies Tanner Houck. Sorry. BTW this year Yusei Kikuchi finished third among Seattle pitchers as lefties Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield and Kikuchi combined for 4.7 fWAR, valued at $37.4 fWAR, in 30 starts.

In nine starts this year Seattle lefthander Yusei Kikuchi posted 1.1 fWAR, valued at $9 million. Prorated to the 32 starts Kikuchi made in 2019, that works out to 3.9 fWAR, which in 2019 was valued at $31 million. Needless to mention but Kikuchi would have led all Red Sox pitchers in fWAR this year ... but that's a low hurdle.

https://calltothepen.com/2020/12/16/baltimore-orioles-trey-mancini-to-be-full-go-for-spring-training/ https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-trey-mancini-chris-davis-20201214-ygypghblfvazfcus3juwgswy5a-story.html

Before the Red Sox signed Hunter Renfroe, a package of one year of Alex Cobb and two years of righthand-hitting outfielder Trey Mancini may have worked. Or not. Neither Cobb nor Mancini is likely to fall within Baltimore's window of contention.

The Texas Rangers reportedly sign Japanese righthander Kohei Arihara:

Trivia: In December 2014 the White Sox traded Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt and two others to the Athletics for Jeff Samardzija and one other. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/semiema01.shtml#all_transactions_other Semien finished third in the 2019 AL MVP voting while Bassitt finished eighth in the 2020 AL Cy Young voting. Samardzija posted a 4.96 ERA in 32 starts with the White Sox before entering free agency.

Except for parts of five minor league seasons, 30-year-old Marcus Semien has spent his entire life in the East Bay where he and his father were athletes at the University of California, Berkeley. Active in Black Lives Matter, Semien would replace Jackie Bradley Jr. as the only African American on the 25- or 26-man roster for the Red Sox. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/why-marcus-semien-wants-world-see-supporting-black-lives-matter Boston may be an unlikely destination. Or not.

The Red Sox reportedly are among three finalists for Japanese righthander Kohei Arihara: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/report-padres-rangers-red-sox-are-finalists-for-kohei-arihara.html Arihara is a year older than Yusei Kikuchi was two years ago when the lefthander signed with the Seattle Mariners. Their lines from Japan's Pacific League: KA 129 G, 836 IP, 3.74 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 3.23 K/BB. 817 H, 626 K, 194 BB YK 195 G, 1010.2 IP, 2.77 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 2.43 K/BB, 810 H, 903 K, 371 BB

The ZiPS projections give Christian Vazquez the comp of catcher Dan Wilson, the Seattle mainstay who made the floundering Jason Varitek expendable: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/zips-2021-projections-boston-red-sox/

Does the Piittsburgh trade of Josh Bell to Washington make trades of potential pitching targets Joe Musgrove and/or Jameson Taillon more or less likely?

Would a Tampa Bay signing of catcher Kevan Smith to minor league contract lessen the Rays' rumored interest in Christian Vazquez? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/rays-nearing-deal-with-kevan-smith.html

Can't help making the comparison to righthander Chris Flexen, another California swing man signed by the Seattle Mariners earlier this month. Matt Andriese is guaranteed $2.1 million for one year with options up to $7.35 million while Flexen is guaranteed $4.35 million over two years with options up to $13.75 million. The 31-year-old Andriese is five years older than Flexen. Andriese and Flexen likely have similar roles ... and similarly complicated guaranteed MLB contracts.

The 1998 Seattle Mariners went 76-85 with Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson (the latter was traded on July 31 of that year). https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1998.shtml Another member of that 1998 Seattle club -- Alex Rodriguez, who ranks 16th all time in career bWAR -- may be headed to the Hall of Fame. Or not.

An update on Noah Song: https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/country-comes-first-and-baseball-second-red-sox-prospect-noah-song

https://bosoxinjection.com/2020/12/18/red-sox-prospect-jarren-durans-winter-league-unusual-start/

FanGraphs columnist Dan Szymborski discusses the 2021 ZiPS projections for the Red Sox: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/zips-2021-projections-boston-red-sox/

The Red Sox and the Seattle Mariners are similarly situated in the sense that neither team is likely to go all-in to compete in 2021. Each team entered the offseason looking to fill an outfield hole with the Red Sox returning lefthand-hitting Alex Verdugo and Andrew Benintendi and the Mariners returning righthhand-hitting Kyle Lewis and Mitch Haniger. The Red Sox at least partially filled their hole with righthand-hitting Hunter Renfroe. Perhaps the Mariners will pursue Renfroe's mirror image in lefthand-hitting Kyle Schwarber, another non-tender/DFA discard who is a year younger than Renfroe. Renfroe is a 6-1, 230-pound power hitter taken out of Mississippi State with the 13th pick of the 2013 draft while Schwarber is a 6-0, 225-pound power hitter taken out of Indiana with the fourth pick of the 2014 draft. Here are their 2021 Marcel projections: HR 389 PA, .221/.296/.465/.761, 55 R, 25 HR, 61 RBI KS 563 PA, .233/.337/.471/.808, 74 R, 30 HR, 74 RBI Steamer and ZiPS project 2021 WAR of 0.8 in 117 games and 1.7 in 124 games for Renfroe and 2.0 in 128 games and 2.0 in 137 games for Schwarber. Each has a pronounced platoon split. Of course the chances of Seattle signing Schwarber are slim (although the Mariners have already signed Schwarber's college teammate, former Red Sox Sam Travis, to a minor league contract).

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/rays-to-re-sign-mike-zunino.html

Will the Rays have interest in Christian Vazquez after re-signing cacther Mike Zunino?

Any Tampa Bay interest in Christian Vazquez might be lessened after the Rays re-signed catcher Mike Zunino: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/rays-to-re-sign-mike-zunino.html

The Royals would be better off just signing Renato Nunez and keeping Brad Keller, who is four weeks younger than Bobby Dalbec. ZiPS projects Keller with a 2021 WAR of 2.3 to the projected 0.8 for Dalbec. The 3-to-6 years of team control is not enough to make up the difference.

Despite its current small budget, Seattle historically has not been a small-market team. As recently as 2018 the Mariners had a Top 10 payroll and again this year Seattle did not qualify for a competitive balance draft pick for small-market and low-revenue teams. The Mariners probably are not looking to merely slash payroll but the rebuild necessarily involves the acquisition of young players with lower pre-arbitration salaries. Just as the Astros did in the past decade, the M's are saving money to spend later when the rebuild approaches fruition: https://www.statista.com/statistics/205619/team-payroll-of-the-houston-astros/ Seattle does not want to be the worker who lives paycheck-to-paycheck without saving for the future.