DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS thread

Depending on what else they had to give up along with Smith and Verdugo (Stripling? Wood?), you know they are going to want an arm back. I'd do that in a minute.

 

Syndergaard would be massive prize(better than Kluber, imo), but I would say consider the source on this one. Would bet that if this WERE a true rumor, Travis d'Arnaud would be coming back as well and a Mets prospect would be going to the Marlins. Cause if it was a straight up deal as presented, the Dodgers would just do that deal with the Marlins without the Mets being involved.

 

Of course. Just thinking it through.

 

Some notes and rumors as an incredibly boring winter meetings comes to an end.

• The Dodgers are said to be having a hard time finding takers for Kemp or Puig. The club does not want to eat a ton of money for either and that is becoming problematic in their talks. It sounds like they may be resolved to keeping Puig and moving Joc and Kemp instead to free up room in the OF and money as well.

• Now that Kelly and Familia have signed, the reliever market is expected to moved quickly. Another reliever the Dodgers had targeted, David Robertson, is said to be a real long shot. It sounds like the Dodgers have pursued him hard, but he has told teams he prefers to play closer to his Rhode Island home. We have seen this before with Darren O'Day and Andrew Miller.

• The Rockies are apparently trying hard to acquire a 1B. They were said to be in on Edwin Encarnacion, but this is now being reported as false as they are looking for someone that is also a strong fielder.

• Speaking of 1B, the Cleveland Indians now have 3 of them after acquiring two today in their deal with the Rays and Mariners. Rosenthal is saying that before the Indians do anything else, they are said to want to move Yonder Alonso and his contract. Alonso took a big step backwards in 2018 after a breakthrough 2017 which he credited to a rebuilt swing. He is owed $9M with a 9M 2020 option, so that could be tougher to move. There is also now a rumor that the Indians MAY have opened enough salary where they think they may not need to trade one of their coveted starting pitchers after all. If this is the case, that would certainly suck.

• There is some feeling within the industry that the Yankees are not looking seriously at Bryce Harper as they may feel they are going to have a positional problem sooner rather than later. They are rumored to be worried that Giancarlo Stanton is not long destined for the OF after already splitting his time between the corners and DH. Also, people that are close to Stanton have said that he would likely not entertain the notion of waiving his NTC for ANYONE(that includes his hometown Dodgers) which would likely need to happen for them to take on Harper.

• The Angels are said to have stepped up their pursuit for Yasmani Grandal or Wilson Ramos and are considered likely to come away with one or the other. They have no depth at the position, so it would be a wise move. The Dodgers checked in on Ramos for a 1 yr deal, but it sounds like he already has teams willing to go multi-years for him.

• Bill Plunkett of the OC Register had a report tonight that stated that Bryce Harper "badly" wants to play for the Dodgers, but they're not close to being on the same page for how long a contract would be for. Some close to him have said that he wants nothing to do with a team that is a year or two away from competing. The feeling by many of folks in the industry is that Machado will likely sign in early January and Harper will be after that. The reason for that timetable is the difference in the way these GM's work and that Boras will want to beat whatever Manny gets. Some think he could wait until February again, but boy do I have a hard time seeing that.

• Spending limitations paired with weakening farms for teams like the Brewers, Cubs and Indians have given hope to their divisional foes. With the NL East already knee deep in a winter free-for-all, teams like the Reds, Pirates, Twins and Royals are said to be wading back into the market thinking that they now play in winnable divisions and with the large amount of FA's out there, they could be primed to take some interesting pieces off the shelves.

• Farhan Zaidi this morning said that the team had not gotten close enough to finish a deal at the meetings, but that they likely will pull a couple off before the holidays. I am using this from today to point out that this is the thinking by many teams these days.

• This has been said before, but the growing belief is that the Phillies are going to miss out on both Machado and Harper. The feeling seems to be that both players appear to think that they are still behind teams like the Braves and Nats in the East and may not want to be a part of second fiddles. It sounds like the Phillies and White Sox for that matter will need to absolutely blow all other suitors out of the water with their contract offers. Bowden thinks that if it is down to just really the Phillies, then Harper will go back to Washington and take their 10-$280 offer so he can be "hometown guy". Some feel that the Phillies may look to add solid role players and make a serious go at Mike Trout in 2 years where they for once will have a slight advantage.

 

There isn’t much to address. The industry just doesn’t need these meetings anymore. Most communication/trades occur via phone calls or text messages. Simply putting GMs in the same building isn’t necessarily productive or going to promote increased activity. It’s been like this for a while and I’m not sure if anything can bring it back.

 

Other than retaining our own players, the largest FA contract Friedman has given out since taking over in 2014 was $48 M to Brandon McCarthy.
Rational and totally defensible. They've been able to get great players via trade (Hill, Darvish, Dozier, Machado, etc...even though some of them sucked for us) without breaking the bank.
That frugality has put us in a good spot to sign a generational player this off-season. I hope we go out and get him.
This is the time.

 

Sandy and Jacky are also girl names.

 

I think if the market isn’t there to trade Puig, then just keep him. I wouldn’t be surprised, because of his baggage, that his perceived value is lower than his actual value. He’s clearly a guy who wants to win and will put it all out there in the postseason, I want those kind of guys. I’d love love love an OF of Harper, Bellinger, Puig.

 

So now you're on a nickname basis with legends like Jack and Sandford?

 

I like to think we’re cool like that

 

So racist.
Unreal.

 

98 in the ribs

 

Mozel tov.

 

He'd better learn to live with being platooned if he stays. No carrying the disgruntled stuff into the season.
The FO knows good and well that some thirsty org will give Puig at least $50-60MM on the open market after next season, so they'll give him a QO and take their draft compensation when the time comes and keep it moving.

 

Jeff Sullivan is another guy who thinks there is more upside to D.J. Lemehieu. He and O'dowd have both called him potentially the next Daniel Murphy. Maybe the Dodgers and new hitting coach see something? Idk.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-hidden-upside-of-a-normal-free-agent/

 

I see another overpaid ho

 

I'm a big fan of Lemehieu but I think the cost would be too high. ONLY chance would have the Puig and Kemp scenarios come to fruition. IF the Harper rumors are true that he would love to play here then I'd expect the FO will wait it out until mid January. Until the Kelly signing came along I wouldn't have believed that we'd actually spend money on Harp.

 

Makes sense that Harper wants to play for LAD. I know he grew up a Yankee fan or whatever, but that's kid stuff. He's his own guy now..have said it before, I can't see Harper being in all that much hurry to deal with all the dumb Yankee grooming rules. Shit, with LAD, he could have a beard growing contest with JT. Harper can be himself. Trout loves Philly and we see him there all of the time..that's different. We don't see Harper at Knicks' games, Giants' or Jets' games.

At first I couldn't believe the Nats turned down LAD's Puig offer when they claimed Harper at the waiver deadline. But now that we know that Puig has been pissy over being platooned, that's the sort of baggage that'll have teams passing on you because interested teams obviously want to use you however they see fit. They don't want to hear any complaining about usage in your contract year. The report says " Puig welcomes a trade ", but if you're trying to manipulate your playing time, you're hurting your chances of being traded because nobody's in a hurry to deal with that excess drama. Phillies would rather hand $50MM to McCutchen.

It's almost similar to Kemp's issues..he obviously needs to be happy about the team he's playing for in order to be a professional and get his ass in better shape/stay in respectable physical condition during the offseason. The $20MM+ he's getting every year isn't enough to motivate him to be at his best. LAD needs a big market AL team that's a division/postseason fave to partner with, one that can hold Kemp accountable. With Stanton and Martinez DH'ing a good amount of the time, Kemp won't be going to either of those clubs.

 

I hope they’re quick inserting Kelly for Jansen when his decline continues. One of the worst things about the sport is nostalgia infiltrating decision making, so it’ll never happen, but whatever. Jansen is a clown.