DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS Thread

"..the brown represents the beginning of all that. " Lol Yeah, brown represents a lot of shit

Wake me when they go all in with Friar Tuck haircuts

 

It is starting to sound like Wheeler may not actually get that huge contract which is why I kind of like him and his stuff rates out pretty top notch. Most of what I am reading is that the Mets utilized him horribly and there are some Cole-like breakthrough predictions that get me a bit excited. Then again, this dude has always battled injury issues and with our luck he would be McCarthy 2.0. I still want to see them get one of the big 3 (or trade for Betts) and if they can pull off one of those FA acquisitions, then he becomes much more palpable as the draft pick loss for him becomes less impactful. I think that aside from Strasburg and Cole, Wheeler is the best pitcher on the FA market that could majorly impact a post season rotation. I like Ryu and we know the history of Bumgarner, but with the way MLB is going towards the power pitcher, their long term outlook is not great.

 

The fact that Wheeler has battled the injury bug before in his career just further cements he'll be a LAD

 

• I have said it a few times, but it does look like teams are not pursuing Strasburg with much gusto. Word is he intends to return to the Nats and if that all falls apart, he is only interested in playing close to his old home in SD. The SD thing just seems like a mild threat to the Nats that he using to make them bring their offer up.

• Josh Donaldson is drawing early interest from the Phillies and Rangers. Phillies seem like a dangerous bidder for him as that could give them a very formidable middle of the lineup. Their pitching is not good, but they have some decent pitching prospects that are making their way up the ladder that could impact the big league roster here soon.

• The Reds have been one of the most aggressive teams since the start of free agency. There has been a lot of speculation as them being a potential trade partner with the Dodgers since the FO's have synced up a decent bit here in recent seasons. Being aggressive in FA is one thing, but as Hanley Ramirez once told me, nobody wants to play in Cincinnati, so their best bets may be the trade market. Though they still may be pretty stung after the last trade they made with us.

• The Cubs are supposedly floating Willson Contreras in trade talks, or at least willing to listen on him. Contreras has been generally regarded as one of the best hitting catchers since coming up, but is one of the worst framers in the game and is penchant for throwing behind runners has cost his pitchers a few strikes. The Cubs are expected to have everyone not named Rizzo, Lester and Hendricks available in trade discussions.

• The White Sox and Jose Abreu are said to be working on a long term deal to keep the 1B on the south side. Abreu has not been anything special for a couple of years now, so when paired with a QO, the feeling was his market was going to be pretty thin. The Dodgers have been strangely linked to Abreu for each of the last few offseasons.

• Marcell Ozuna and the Cards have had talks about bringing the LF'er back on a long term extension.

• A report by Jorge Castillo of the LA Times last night said the Dodgers are looking for starting pitching and at RH power bats though they have no indication of how strong the FO is pursuing those avenues. They speculated that some of the more expensive Arb players on the club could be shopped.

• There is growing speculation that the Red Sox and Indians will not trade either or superstars that have been rumored to be on the market. Early speculation is that the Indians feel that their window to compete is still open, while the Red Sox could be wary to trade away one of the best players in the game for what should be a mediocre return due to how expensive his contract will be this upcoming season.

• There are quite a few Asian baseball players that are rumored to be getting posted this winter. The Dodgers are not likely to be in on any of them at great length as most are not considered high end MLB talent this season. In case you missed it, last years prized player turned in a horrible first season with the Mariners. Yusei Kikuchi was expected to be a middle of the rotation pitcher, but looked more like a #5/swing man.

• Update: Zack Wheeler has drawn early interest from the Padres, Whites Sox and Angels, which is not shocking at all.

• Update 2: This is from Bowden "The Dodgers open the offseason with a desire to add a right-handed bat, a starting pitcher that could slot in as a No. 3 or better, and bullpen help. Team president Andrew Friedman and his staff appear to be more open-minded this winter than they have in the past, so don’t be surprised if they make a strong run at Mookie Betts or Francisco Lindor. Friedman is very close to Boston’s Chaim Bloom since their days in Tampa Bay and he’s been having non-stop dialogue with the Indians on various players for over a year now."

 

If the Dodgers are shopping some of the more expensive arbitration players, I’m guessing it’s referring to Joc and Seager.

Our top 6 arbitration by cost are: Cody, Joc, Corey, Kiké, Taylor, and Muncy. Cody and Muncy are safe. It’s possible one of Kiké or Taylor could be traded since there is some redundancy... but I think the FO will see value in keeping both.

 

The article speculated that Joc was most likely to be shopped this offseason. I would not be shocked if both Taylor and Hernandez were on the block with them moving whichever nets the best return. With Beaty and Rios now in the picture, they can afford to move one of those guys, especially if the club were to land another RH starter.

 

More updates tonight as the GM meetings have started rolling.

• The Yankees said that they will be interviewing Strasburg and Cole in hopes of bringing them to the Big Apple. Heyman says that they are concerned that they may not be able to lure Cole away from California, which is said to be his goal. Cashman went on to say that they have a few players that they are interested in that will be "surprise guys" and that they have no directive to stay under the luxury tax. Bowden seems to think that Cole is going to net close to $300M. Bowden is actually pretty good with his salary predictions, but these seems insanely steep.

• Zack Wheeler has supposedly notified the Mets that he will be turning down the QO. #SHOCKED #NotShocked. He also met today with the Astros which is not a surprise as they may look to repeat their Cole success with him. One thing to note about the Astros, for all the talk about the Dodgers FO being cheap, Houston has also not committed long term money to any players over the last couple of years. They have acquired expensive players, but they were at the end of their contracts and the Astros usually gave up better prospects to get the other team to eat more of the contract. This offseason could be a test for them as well as they are said to still be kicking around on Cole and Strasburg as well. They too went cheap last year for an oft-injured outfielder with star potential, only their guy actually fucking worked out.

• The A's are said to be looking for an impact LH bat and there are some decent/cheap options on the FA market. I have seen in the past that they are a team to watch as a Joc Pederson destination. The A's have some serious pitching on the way, so they may be more inclined to push the envelope this year and the Bay Area kid could be of some help to stabilize that lineup. They have a bevy of top MIF prospects and that could be something that intrigues the Dodgers along with some of the A's BP arms.

 

• Add the Rangers to teams that are going to make a run at Cole and Rendon. With them opening a new stadium this year, they could look to make an impact acquisition to get more people in the gates.

• The Red Sox are said to be very open and are looking at all possibilities in making some deals to free up payroll. The Dodgers and Red Sox are rumored to be heavily linked as Andrew Friedman and new Sox Pres Chaim Bloom are said to be close friends still to this day... which begs to ask WHY this dude was not brought in when we needed a GM.... Anyway, he said that he has checked in with all 29 teams already and that DOES include the Yankees. Kind of weird how the Yanks-Sox and Dodgers-Giants rivalries don't really go beyond the dudes on the field and the fans anymore.

• The big news of the night now is that the Nationals are said to be showing strong interest in Josh Donaldson. This would be an interesting turn of events as Donaldson is said to want to sign relatively soon and that could force the Nationals into making a decision on Rendon. There has been some speculation that teams are potentially over the Boras bullshit move of pushing things into spring training and could force more deals and moves prior to Christmas. Seriously, fuck @huh? , all the dude had to do was drop that receiver out the window and we may not have had to deal with all of this shit.

 

Does it, really? Not having a GM hasn't stopped us from speculating about LAD signing Rendon, Stras, Cole, etc. and trading for Betts/Lindor, so do they really need one? Plus, I sort of like the idea of having more of Friedman's buddies getting employed around the league. Maybe LAD benefits from it

On the other hand, do we even have a prez of ops right now? Haven't heard anything about Friedman's new contract, so on an official level it looks like we don't have prez of ops or a GM. Although, of course, it looks like Friedman is gonna keep operating without a contract in place..which..OK. I know he's been ill, but Friedman hiring a GM at this point when he doesn't even have a new deal would be sort of ass backwards. Sort of shaping up to be another WTF offseason

 

The Dodgers have 4 players in their top 30 prospects(According to MLB Pipeline) that need to be added to the 40 man roster by next week or risk losing them in the Rule 5 draft. The Dodgers roster was at 37, but as of this post Kristopher Negron has retired dropping the number to 36. The Dodgers could potentially protect each of these players without having to release or trade anyone, but they may not have to actually protect them all.

#9 Mitch White - White had another up and down season as the once heralded top prospect continued to battle consistency issues. The Dodgers moved White to the pen late in the season and continued to get him work in the Arizona Fall League. After a rough first outing, White started to impress some folks once he settled in. One final disaster of an appearance ended White's season, but the Dodgers would be hard pressed not to add him to the 40 man as he has displayed front of the rotation stuff at times. A more extended look in the pen should be necessary in 2020 to see if White can adapt and potentially finally put is elite stuff to some use.

#12 DJ Peters - Peters, like White, continued to show inconsistencies on the field. Peters was relegated to repeating AA to start the year and his revamped swing got off to a lousy start. As he began to heat up, the club decided to promote him to AAA where he absolutely destroyed the ball for the first month with 11 home runs in the month of July. It was a disaster after that when strike outs reared their ugly head and Peters power disappeared entirely. His holes could mean a quick return if he were picked in the draft, but his upside is still immense as he continues to rework his swing and that could make for him worth getting stashed at the end of the bench by a shit team. With not much in the intriguing RH OF bat department from MiLB, the Dodgers will probably find a place for him and his 70 grade power.

#23 Cristian Santana - This has been a Dodgers breakout pick by many over the last couple of seasons, but it has never really come together. A torrid end to 2018 led many to believe that he had finally arrived, but a lackluster 2019 at AA paired with a total lack of plate discipline has once again set the clock back on this Dodgers prospect. Reports are that he has the potential to be a gold glove candidate at 3B with his absolute cannon of an arm, but the bat needs to improve. Santana's average was over .300 this year, but it was paired with 10!!! walks and only 10 home runs. If he can keep the average there and improve on the other categories, he could turn himself back into a potential breakout prospect. For now, the Dodgers will likely risk him going unprotected for the draft as he would not serve much use to a big league team and stashing a guy with terrible OB skills would likely doom them.

#26 Jordan Sheffield - Like White, Sheffield was seen as a pitcher with front of the rotation upside when coming out of college. Also just like White, Sheffield has dealt with consistency issues since the day he put on a Dodgers uniform and has pretty much crushed those dreams. After a late season move to the pen in 2018, folks thought that he could finally live up to his potential of being a dangerous MLB arm, only this time as a back end reliever. Armed with 3 plus pitches, including a 70 grade fastball, Sheffield's biggest weakness has been his below average control that has hampered his development. He cruised through the first couple months of the season, earning him a jump back into the Dodgers Top 30 prospects, but crashed hard the last two months. He still shows elite swing and miss stuff, so the Dodgers will likely want to add him to the 40-man roster to help protect him from seeing MLB success in the future, just with a different club.

 

They said after Zaidi left that they would take some time and then re-fill his position. I personally liked the way things were handled under Zaidi and after this past season, it is quite obvious where Friedman and Zaidi had differing styles with how the Giants reflected us more of years past while we were much more quiet with the deals around the edges of years past. They never really talk about his contract stuff, so I would not be shocked if they had not already inked it, they're just doing that thing where they fuck around with the media. My frustrations more lie in that we have seen the front office get completely dismantled the last couple of years and instead of replacing, they've really not done much. They have lost I believe 4 guys that were AGM's or the GM in the last two offseasons and the last year or so has not been a great run by the FO. Feels to me that they need some help in there. Speculation by the media that the club is involved in these guys is one thing, actually signing or trading for them is another.

 

Breaking News:
MLB has concluded that the Houston Astros did indeed use technology to illegally steal signs during the 2017 season. MLB is said to be embarking on a major investigation of the franchise after widespread complaints from teams around the league as well as former players and front office personnel.

So fucking pissed right now.

"The Astros’ set-up in 2017 was not overly complicated. A feed from a camera in center field, fixed on the opposing catcher’s signs, was hooked up to a television monitor that was placed on a wall steps from the team’s home dugout at Minute Maid Park, in the tunnel that runs between the dugout and the clubhouse. Team employees and players would watch the screen during the game and try to decode signs — sitting opposite the screen on massage tables in a wide hallway.

When the onlookers believed they had decoded the signs, the expected pitch would be communicated via a loud noise — specifically, banging on a trash can, which sat in the tunnel. Normally, the bangs would mean a breaking ball or off-speed pitch was coming."

 

Game 5 explained. Fucking cocksucking pieces of shit

 

I'm livid right now.

 

I’ve been livid about that series for 2 years, and not at all about the Boston one. We were the best team in baseball that year. Without question