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***Official 2017-18 Hot Stove League Thread: Peter Bourjos & Ryan Flaherty are signs the end is near (2 Viewers)

Premier said:
Sounds like the pitcher they got for Souza is pretty good. Haven't read about the IF yet but most seem to think the P will make an impact.  

Odorizzi is piss awful. Not sure what you think they should have got for him. He was one of the 10 worst starters in baseball last season. I'm just happy he's gone. 

The Dickerson move is odd but they've been trying to move him all winter to no avail. Still that's the one move that just doesn't make sense. 

Well the souza move doesn't make a lot of sense either but the return seems decent. 
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Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

 
I wonder if the FA market is so depressed, that teams like the Rays figure they can trade player X, and get back a player who's 90% as good as Player X and with a prospect in return.

 
Good Posting Judge said:
I wonder if the FA market is so depressed, that teams like the Rays figure they can trade player X, and get back a player who's 90% as good as Player X and with a prospect in return.
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Seems to be the case. Local guys think they are in on Bautista or another RH FA bat too. 

 
TAMPA — Brandon Drury’s numbers don’t jump off the page in a way that would tell you he’s The Next Big Thing, yet the Yankees have been trying to pry him away from the Diamondbacks for years, convinced he has star potential.

And given Brian Cashman’s track record in trades over the last few years, who would dare argue?

For that matter, who knows, maybe Drury is another Didi Gregorius-like steal in the making.

“Ah geez, I knew that was coming,” Tim Naehring said with a laugh on Wednesday.

Well, why not? Naehring, now Brian Cashman’s top lieutenant, was one of the scouts who pushed hardest for the Gregorius trade with the D-backs four years ago, and now he, as well as many of those same scouts, are projecting similar possibilities with Drury.

“There’s so much upside,” Naehring said. “We thought it was the perfect fit in a lot of ways.”

Drury, who turns 26 in August, has had a couple of solid seasons in Arizona, hitting .267 with 37 doubles and 13 home runs last year. But he doesn’t walk much, which led to a .317 on-base percentage, and his home numbers in the desert are dramatically better than his road numbers.

So why do the Yankees love him so much?

For starters, they think being bounced around from third base, his natural position, to left field and second base, to make way for Jake Lamb, has affected his offense at least to some degree, and their plan is to put him at third and leave him there.

Brandon Drury will play where he's most comfortable on the diamond: third base.

(Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News)

They also see what Naehring called “a swing that profiles well at our ballpark,” meaning that he drives the ball to the opposite field naturally, which, as a righthanded hitter will lead to a lot of home runs at Yankee Stadium.

In addition, they believe his plate discipline, which Naehring said has been “below-average to date,” can be improved dramatically with the help of analytics that will help him identify pitchers’ tendencies in certain counts and “get him in position to swing at fastballs.”

Which, of course, is another way of saying the Yankees think they can get him to stop chasing so much, especially against breaking stuff, and improve last season’s 3.68 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

“We’ve identified some things we think will help him,” Naehring said, not wanting to get specific. “The swing itself is fundamentally sound, and he’ll be able to utilize the right field porch (at the Stadium). He’s not a turn-and-burn guy.”

No less significant, the Yankees are convinced Drury’s athleticism and mental makeup give him the type of foundation that will allow him to make the changes they project.

Some of that comes not just from their scouting projectables but input from their new third base coach, Phil Nevin, who managed Drury in the minors with the Diamondbacks a few years ago.

“I know his work ethic,” Nevin said Wednesday, “and the important thing is I know he wants to be great. He loves the game. He’s a gym rat and a very intense guy. People will see that very quickly.

“So I do think there’s a lot more that can be tapped into. In all honesty, I think switching positions has affected him a little (offensively). He’s a good third baseman, and that’s where he had played his whole life. He’s comfortable there.”

The organization hopes Brandon Drury (right) will be a steal just like Didi Gregorius was.

(Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News)

All in all, the Yankees aren’t saying Drury is Mike Schmidt, but you get the feeling they’re convinced he can play at an All-Star level. Clearly they weren’t this high on him when he was a 13th-round draft pick out of high school by the Diamondbacks in Oregon, but their scouts were struck by his potential in the minors as far back as four or five years ago.

Thus, as Brian Cashman said on Wednesday, “We have been looking at Brandon Drury for quite some time. I tried to get him years ago through (former GM) Dave Stewart, before that from (another former GM, the late) Kevin Towers.”

Obviously there was a limit to how much Cashman would give up for Drury. Same this winter when he said he had “many extended conversations” with current D-backs GM Mike Hazen.

And it wasn’t until Hazen engaged the Rays in a three-way deal that it came together, in part because Tampa Bay felt strongly about Yankees second base prospect Nick Solak.

The Yankees also gave up minor-league pitcher Taylor Widener, so the deal was further testament to the depth of their minor-league system, as neither player is considered among their top 10 prospects.

In any case, the Yankees finally have their man, and at the right price, too. Drury, in his pre-arbitration stage, will earn about $600,000 this season, assuring Cashman of having payroll room under the luxury-tax threshold to pursue pitching, if necessary, at the July trade deadline. So will Drury live up to all of this potential the Yankees see in him?

Well, Cashman has been on a roll lately, when you consider the trades he has made in recent years for Gregorius, Aaron Hicks and Starlin Castro, as well as the deadline deals last year for Sonny Gray, David Robertson, Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle, and the prospect haul he brought back in 2016 for Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller.

Is Drury the latest notch on the GM’s belt? Would you bet against it?  
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Drury could be a nice fantasy sleeper this year. Also the bolded for cappy

 
Logan Morrison to the Twins for 1/$6.5M plus incentives and a vesting option that could make it 2/$16.5M.

 
Notorious T.R.E. said:
BUT IS HE A LEADER?????
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Most Royals fans know Duda as “that guy who let Hosmer score on that grounder in the Series”.  

RnR said:
99% of Eric Hosmer's slugging percentage, 2.4% of Eric Hosmer's contract.
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Going out on a limb and projecting  T-shirt, jersey, and shirsey sales of the “Future Mrs. Duda” theme will be less than 2.4% of the volume “Future Mrs. Hosmer” merch moved.

 
Notorious T.R.E. said:
BUT IS HE A LEADER?????
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I don't know how much of this turned into wins, but a couple of my favorite Hosmer-as-leader stories...

When Lorenzo Cain switched his walk-up music to "Trap Queen" by Fetty Wap, Hosmer started dropping "17" and "38" into his interviews and daring other players to do so.  After a while, you couldn't make through a postgame without a player saying something like "we make that play 17 times out of 38, so it was good we came through in that spot."  Some Royals fans claim Hosmer's slide home to tie up Game 5 in the 9th inning came at the 17 hour, 38 minute mark of the Series, but I haven't checked that.  

A couple years ago, Hosmer and his girlfriend (TV reporter Kacie McDonnell) went to a Justin Beiber concert in KC.  This became news when Hosmer was spotted walking out of the concert venue after the show, where he of course was hounded by reporters and fans surprised to see him at a Justin Bieber concert.  What wasn't known at the time was McDonnell and Hosmer were hosting at least half of the Royals roster at the concert.  When the postshow crowd outside wasn't dispersing quickly, Hosmer volunteered to walk out and get crushed by the throng of fans and claim he was only at the show on a date with his girlfriend.  And while everyone descended on Hosmer, the rest of the players at the show were able to get out of the arena and past of the concert crowd unnoticed.  

I'll miss not seeing him play all the time.  He's a fun player to watch in the field, at the plate, and on the basepaths.  But given where the Royals roster and payroll is right now, I get not wanting to pay him huge money deep into his 30s.  They guessed wrong on Alex Gordon and can't afford another mistake.  And 1B is a relatively easy position to fill.  I get the whole "Hosmer's defense is overrated" argument from the sabermetricians, but IMO some of that is on Yost playing Hosmer at "No Doubles" depth along the line early in games, conceding a lot of groundball singles between 3 and 4 that a lot of properly-positioned 1Bs would have gotten to.  

 
After turning down the $17.4MM Qualifying Offer from the Royals, Mike Moustakas re-signs with the Royals for $5.5MM guaranteed with incentives that raise Moose’s take to $7.7MM if he hangs in there for 450 Plate Appearances.

Contract includes a 2019 mutual option for $15MM with a $1MM buyout.  

No word yet on the exact dimensions the box of poop Moose plans to mail to Boras’s office as a thank-you gift, but crowdsourcing at MLB Trade Rumors estimate it will be 12” by 12” by 5.5”, a Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box.

 
Really like the Twins getting Lance Lynn. I think they're poised to make another solid run, playing meaningful baseball into at least late September.

If I'm giving up a draft pick, I personally would have liked to lock him up for more than one year, but still a solid addition.

 
The Orioles needed to sign Lynn or Cobb or even Liriano. Such a terribly run outfit especially ownership. They make no effort to lock up Machado, they give Trumbo a bunch of money, they mismanage young pitchers like no other, and they don’t even try in free agency. 

 
strykerpks said:
I'm being totally honest here, am I a flat out homer if I think the Brewers made some nice moves and may have quietly done better than those two?
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Besides Cain and Yelich what did they do? May have overpaid for Cain and while Yelich is awesome they did give up a  top prospect for him. They signed some horrible pitchers and still need help there. More that I think about it don't see how you can say they had a top off-season.

 
shadyridr said:
Besides Cain and Yelich what did they do? May have overpaid for Cain and while Yelich is awesome they did give up a  top prospect for him. They signed some horrible pitchers and still need help there. More that I think about it don't see how you can say they had a top off-season.
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So I'm a homer. Check. Got it

 
shadyridr said:
 Frazier, Bruce, swarzak, and Vargas were all good, low risk signings imo. I do think they are a playoff team if the pitchers stay healthy.
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You actually think the Mets offseason was good? Swarzak is fine. The rest of them are below average players that real playoff teams had no interest in. I’d give them a C on their offseason and that’s based primarily on getting Calloway.

The Angels won the offseason by default when they won the Ohtani sweepstakes. 

 
E-Z Glider said:
You actually think the Mets offseason was good? Swarzak is fine. The rest of them are below average players that real playoff teams had no interest in. I’d give them a C on their offseason and that’s based primarily on getting Calloway.

The Angels won the offseason by default when they won the Ohtani sweepstakes. 
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They needed a 3B, a power bat, a reliever, and a #5 starter and they got them all without breaking the bank.

 
Jeff Passan

@JeffPassan

As most of the solid free agents find landing spots, it's incredible to look back and see some of the deals that were made. The Mets guaranteed Jay Bruce $39 million. Carlos Gonzalez, Jonathan Lucroy, Lance Lynn, Logan Morrison and Mike Moustakas combined were guaranteed $39.5M.

12:30 PM · Mar 11, 2018

But hey! Go METS!

 
I like Toronto's offseason better than the Mets (Grichuk and Granderson vs. paying Bruce anything, Jaime Garcia over Vargas, Solarte v. Frazier and Oh to the bullpen for $2/4.5 million v. Swarzak for 2/14) and I don't think they came close to winning the offseason.

 
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