MLB Free Agency Is Only 2 Days Old And It Already Promises To Be The Craziest Offseason Of My Life
It's our 53rd episode but the first offseason one we've ever recorded. So naturally tons to break down as MLB free agency waits for no one. The Astros hadn't even started their parade and guys were opting-out while Edwin Diaz inked a $100M contract - the largest in reliever history.
For a lot of baseball fans, it's the most exciting time of the year. And while that's objectively disappointing within the grand scheme of life, it's also a hard reality about following an MLB team. The next couple months is when you can make the most drastic improvements and we're already seeing notable action. I'll get to that in a minute but first a brief acknowledgment to the Houston Astros.
They're champs. They earned it. We suck 'em off good and hard to start the show this week because they deserve it.
And opposite that, there's plenty to talk about with the Phillies: Maldonado's HBP. Alvarado for Wheeler at his pitch count. Yordan's power splits. Pumping 2-1 heaters to Yordan with a 1-run lead. Double play or strikeout.
That segment might run a little longer than we anticipated but it's bound to happen. Couple of baseball guys thumbing through their notecards with a lot to say about a big game. It's in our pathology.
The real meat though is in the offseason roster moves that are about to go down. And already we're seeing some crazy shit.
- Edwin Diaz gets $20M a year for 5-years
- Steve Cohen is breaking $300M in payroll
- Correa, Xander, Rodon, Rizzo, deGrom opt out
- Verlander is about to opt-out
- Phillies decline Segura's $17M option for 2023 while Zach Eflin ($15M) opts out.
- The Segura move means the Phillies could be in play for Trea Turner then moving Stott to 2nd. Kevin Long sticking around as the hitting coach after missing one of the 5 manager openings very much supports this.
- This could probably just turn into an opt-out blog and that would be super lame but also informative. The deadline to decide on options is this Thursday November 10th. There's a number of familiar names that will be available based on this. Not really worth diving into guys like Will Myers right now, but they're out there.
- Aaron Judge should get $45M AAV for anything less than 7 years. I don't think I said that on the show but now that I'm thinking about it, sure feels right. Maybe $50M if we're feeling dangerous. The man deserves every nickel and I sincerely want him somewhere that creates the most chaos. The Giants are practically in on everyone. The Rangers want to spend another billion dollars before completely surrendering the state of Texas to the Astros.
- Predictions are coming but not right now. I'm still in the lab cooking up my predictions and mapping out the possibilities. While I do all this hard work, follow Starting 9 so you know what's going on. Next episode will be #54 and that's Brian Urlacher's number. You know how much that means to me.