DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS thread

But it is not Yaz's swings fault for his long slumps. It is the umpires fault for expanding the zone on him and then he loses the strikezone for weeks and months at a time.... his words, not mine.

 

He didn't really say that........did he?

 

Now that the dumb ass awards season is over, we should start to see some more moves. Rumors from around the league and pay sites

• The Dodgers are going about things as if they will not be bringing Yasmani Grandal back. Finding a starting catcher is item number one on the FO's offseason agenda.
• The Dodgers and Dave Roberts are both not worried about his contract negotiations. With all of the people leaving in the org, the two sides agreed to come back to the table when these other things are resolved. He is on vacation in Italy as well, which is why this thing has gone silent. The two sides remain confident that an extension will get worked out.
• Padres are trying hard to land Noah Syndergaard. Their deep farm could make for an interesting trade partner. What is not known yet is what direction the new Mets FO plans to go in. This move would also signal the Padres going back to a win now scenario and could make them interesting players this offseason.
  
• Pump the brakes for now on J.T. Realmuto. The Astros have pursued him early on and the Marlins are said to be sticking to their guns of a return centered around Forrest Whitley or Kyle Tucker. Both are Top 10 prospects in baseball and Whitley has a lot of people talking after his AFL performance. Not saying that the Dodgers are out by any means, but this stands in line with what they have been rumored to ask the Nats in return for Realmuto(Top 5 prospect, Victor Robles). It may take some time for the Marlins to get realistic, meaning a deal could come much later in the winter or maybe not until next season as the Marlins are said to not be keen on the idea of moving him.
• It sounds more and more like the Yankees will go hardest after Manny Machado. There is also some growing speculation that the Yankees could try for both Machado and Harper. The Yankees would then try to move Stanton in a corresponding deal. This would be interesting as Stanton has the full no-trade clause and could insist on a "Dodgers or bust" scenario, putting the Dodgers in a very good negotiating position.

 

Yeah, I believe that last year during ST he did some interview where he said that when asked about his prolonged slumps. Something like he has a real strict eye for the strike zone and when umpires start to expand it on him, he starts to press. Grandal has said a lot of dumb shit the last couple of years and kinda makes some sense as to why a lot of the players in SD fucking hated him.

 

Wow...they hated him because he said dumb shit? You'd think they would feel sorry for him, doltishness and all...
If this is a template for teammates' opinion of an individual, then Davey Robots must he absolutely loathed.
Abhorred.
Reviled.

 

Lol Pads are dumb as rocks. Just stick with the long term rebuild and stop it already

Very good negotiating position, sure, but LAD would also be getting the older/lesser player in this thing, so yet another 2nd place finish at the end of the day. And I'm not even a Stanton hater, just a realist. Will be happy to have Stanton, but he's about to turn 30 and he looked like trash against good postseason pitching..guess that makes him the perfect LAD

 

When I say "dumb shit", it does not literally mean he is dumb. He has shown throughout his career an unwillingness to take blame for his shortcomings and regularly deflects blame onto others. Not only is that a poor characteristic for a teammate, it is worse when it is from the guy that is supposed to be your Field General. That is the dumb shit that he says. Instead of him taking the blame for a god awful Game 1 performance, he said "baseball is hard" that is saying some dumb shit. The only thing I ever really hear about Roberts is that there are a couple personalities that Roberts has done wonders with in wrangling, I am starting to think that Grandal may have been one of those guys that he kept on a relatively even keel after the way he left the Padres.

 

I like Stanton but as a New Yorker I wouldn’t love the Yankees getting Harper and Machado and giving us Stanton as a castoff lol

 

So the Yankees get the 2 best FAs in years and we get sent their hammy downs. Sounds about right.

 

The thing with the Padres is I wonder if this is them seeing a window in the West. Word is that the Rockies may also now be in a bit of a bind financially, so if they and the D'Backs take a step back, the Padres then have a legit shot of making up some ground(especially if the Giants go into a rebuild). Still, a lot of their young MLB guys did not show a whole lot last year and most of their top talent is still a year+ away. I am with you in that it is smarter to hang tight, though some of those dumb signings and trades really worked in their favor(when they then traded those guys away).

For Stanton, he is still a full year away from 30 and unlike either Machado or Harper, his AAV would likely be much more reasonable. His is already 25 a year(22 with the Marlins contribution), if the Dodgers could get another 2 from the Yanks on top of the Marlins 3, I would argue that he could be the more appealing player long term if the other two stretch higher than 30. I also don't know about the whole "lesser player" thing. Sure Harper has the ceiling of a monster, but outside of one season, he hasn't been the megastar we all were expecting and has been fairly up and down. Would say that to this point, Stanton has been the more reliable player. Machado is damn good, but is more than likely the guy the Dodgers got compared to the guy that played half his games in Camden. Damn good player? Hell yes. $12 to 20M AAV better long term than Stanton? I am not so sure about that. This still doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the Yankees since they do already have a great player in Stanton under contract. You may be on to something though as he was completely overmatched in the Red Sox series after owning them all year and maybe that was enough for the Yankees to want to move on to someone else.

 

And another thing pertaining to the guy that's supposed to be our " Field General " and leader as the catcher is this..was it really smart on LAD's behalf to not trade this guy last offseason, so the team didn't have to have a QB/Field General/catcher with lame duck status? Leaders usually want to know where they stand with a team.

Not that Yasmani was going to be a better leader under better circumstances, but given that they know enough about him..certainly can't expect a Yasmani to be what you want in a leader when he plays the entire season knowing it's his last. Because this is not even a surprise that he's about to get 60-70MM to go elsewhere

 

Marlins want Cody for Realmuto lmao @THINKBLUE

 

It would be interesting to see what he'd do after coming home to place that he supposedly really wants to be. May also be a bit pissed about being "a Yankee castoff"

 

God bless you, brother, but I'm not giving a single fuck about AAVs right now. I want the best player. As players squarely in their prime, both Harper and Machado project to be better than the older Stanton moving forward

 

Shit, @yourself Lol

 

The Marlins will be much better, regardless.
They have a new logo, so book it.

 

Ehh... I would argue that him not having a contract in 2019 lined up was even more reason to hold onto a guy like Grandal(especially after the year Barnes had). You always hear of dudes having those career seasons just in time for free agency and I could see them betting on Grandal having one of those. One where maybe he is a bit more focused and amazingly those long slumps just disappear. The lame duck guys seem to be mostly found in football and I guess some coaches here and there. Doesn't seem to happen in baseball really ever.

 

So...
No GM
No first string catcher
No 3b coach
No hitting instructor
That's just what is missing right now, for sure.
Then, at least some portion of the bullpen is probably gone.
And of course, the manager in limbo...
No problemo.
Forecast: cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

 

Chris Taylor just swung right through this

 

Offensively, to expect a productive year in a contract season, OK. That makes sense. But what we're talking about earlier really has nothing to do with his offensive production, we knew we were getting that, he's been consistent with year end totals/production.

What we're on about right now is his leadership qualities because he plays that position, and I just don't see how anyone could've expected him to do more than what he usually does there or be better in these areas when he's known he was heading out the door for at least as long as we've known. So ultimately, the team decided Yasmani's sketchy leadership qualities weren't disruptive enough to just move him a year ahead of time

Not " foist " level, but certainly going in that direction, especially when the Yankees get the younger guys in their prime. I like Stanton, but not under these terms. Right there with you.
" You couldn't make in NY, bum. Try LA. "
Yeah, that feels great..