Hot Stove 2023-2024

DOG NAME REVEAL:

dekoping, American name Decoy

Shohei: "good pace to be ready for opening day as a hitter"

Really love this Ippei guy, so nonplussed up there, sitting in his suit like he'd rather be in flip flops down at Venice eating a taco getting ready for a surf.

Yankees hair policy is a crime: zero aura Dugie 💔

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBWP8Q3WgAExU92?format=jpg&name=900x900

Naaaaah that right there is prime frat-boy duggie. Love it

BREAKING: The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays are in agreement on a trade to send RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Manuel Margot to the Dodgers for RHP Ryan Pepiot and OF Jonny Deluca -- contingent on Glasnow signing an extension with L.A., which is expected, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 15, 2023

Lotta talk about this being a bad trade for the Dodgers, but the farm has sp's to spare. Bobby Miller Emmet Sheehan and Ryan Pepiot , there was only really room for 2 of these guys (especially if Ohtani comes back!) Dodgers still have bobby and emmet to bet on, while getting a different kind of bet (health, not improvement) on Glasnow.

Buehler
Bobby
Sheehan
Gladnow
Kershaw (??????)

Healthy Glasnow + one other bloke (maybe a Japanese friend) would turn this from questionable to a solid rotation

May and Gonsolin had TJ this year so probably miss all of 2024 sadly.

2025, is where things get incredibly hopeful for Dodgers starting pitching

Ohtani
Buehler
May
Glasnow
Gonsolin/Kershaw/Bobby/Sheehan????? Will contend as one of the best rotations in baseball if all the TJ's turn out alright. It's a very *fingers crossed* outlook, but who knows what happens

this might be the first time i haver ever felt this way, but i'm glad my team is in the AL east right now

Buehler is recovering from his 2nd TJ, he pitched a total of 2 (two) innings in 2023 for AAA OKC. He pitched 36 innings in 2020 and 65 innings in 2022. He will be lucky to get to 100 IP/20 starts in 2024 before he gets shutdown IMHO. He could possibly pivot into a leverage guy, I just don't see him as a workhorse innings eater this season or even next.

Miller & Sheehan will probably get shutdown at some point after July. Young talent with massive workload issues.

Glasnow has never pitched over 120IP until last year, but even so he looks like the only guy that fits as a #1 SP.

Kershaw will have a flash or two of brilliance, but will inevitably get hurt (or is already hurt).

May should actually be back in the back of 2024 but I can't see him as a starter despite LAD trying to make him one. He's only started 34 games in 5 seasons which is very light, especially for a guy recovering from his second Tommy John surgery in 3 years time! He will be babied back into action.

Brandon Gomes also didn't want to commit to Dustin May pitching next season, though it's possible. He has not picked up a ball yet after undergoing his flexor tendon repair and TJ revision in July.

"He’s somebody that...we’re not going to push by any means," Gomes said.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) November 8, 2023

Right-handed starter Michael Wacha and the Kansas City Royals are in agreement on a two-year, $32 million contract, a source tells ESPN. He gets an opt-out after the first season.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 15, 2023

Probably not news to Mookieproof but these are some staggering numbers

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBZ8gm4WwAAgohg?format=jpg&name=medium

Right-handed starter Tyler Glasnow and the Los Angeles Dodgers are finalizing a five-year, $135 million contract that, once completed, will make official the trade of Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Dodgers, sources told ESPN.

The deal, which will send right-handed starter Ryan Pepiot and outfield prospect Jonny Deluca to the Rays, was contingent on Glasnow signing an extension. The window to do so opened Thursday morning, and the parties quickly came together with the framework of a deal that will tack four years and $110 million in new money onto the $25 million Glasnow was owed for the 2024 season.

There is no deferred money in Glasnow's deal, sources said, after superstar Shohei Ohtani's contract with the Dodgers deferred $680 million of his $700 million guarantee. Some of the freed-up cash flow can go to Glasnow, who is from Southern California and joins Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman as Dodgers signed beyond 2025.

good luck

did the royals change owners or something? why are they suddenly snatching up middle of the road free agents?

got bonked on the head, suddenly realized they are in the most easily winnable division in MLB

^otm & Bobby Witt Jr is a player you can build around

We have signed C Austin Hedges to a one-year Major League contract.

To make room on the 40-man, we have designated 1B Alfonso Rivas for assignment.

Welcome back, Hedgey! 😌#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/8YjPSj8W6L

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) December 15, 2023

This tweet is up there as the highlight of the guardians year.

Hope the Dodgers do the same for the kershaw announcement
https://i.postimg.cc/k5smj8SK/o9n3ozzhhrn91.jpg

The Kansas City Royals, who had the 8th-lowest payroll in MLB last season at $92 million, have now spent $65 million in free-agent contracts this winter.
The Royals and Detroit Tigers have easily been the most aggressive teams in the AL Central this winter.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 15, 2023

Fingers crossed we get some fluctuation in the AL Central this year. Royals were only above the A's for lowest win total in baseball last year so I don't quite think these are "compete for the division" deals. They need to make up another 30 wins from what they had last year to even be in the conversation for the division. Tigers are close enough that it would be nice to see them being more aggressive making deals, only been Andrew Chaffin and Kenta Maeda so far (neither of them a bad move)

“I’m not obviously an expert in the medical field, but it was a procedure,” Ohtani said. “I’m not sure what it’s called”

*looks down at cybernetic arm*

I saw that clip and it was really weird, especially since the LA Times interviewed his doctor and it was called a second TJS throughout.

Unknown how it affects his pitching. Bryce Harper returned from a Tommy John at the beginning of May & hit 5 home runs between then and the end of July and 16 the last two months of the season. Ohtani’s first surgery in October 2018 had a reverse pattern: 15 hrs and good numbers(.292/.356/.521, ops of .878 between his return in May and the end of July, before his power fell off a cliff from August to the end of the season (276/.313/.472 . with 3 home runs from the beginning of August to the end of his season on 11th September). Why was that? Oh ok, knee surgery.

I guess in summary: who the fuck knows how it turns out?

Sources: Pirates bringing Andrew McCutchen back. One year, $5 million. Story to come.

— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) December 19, 2023

@Pirates pic.twitter.com/uiFgXqsd90

— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) December 19, 2023

I'm sure no one wants to talk about this but me..... But Yamamoto. Dodgers are looking to own the Asian market, stated by some top-brass during the Ohtani press conference. So I can see them doing very un-Dodger things and giving a silly contract for its combined business and baseball benefits. They've done it once already with Ohtani. Interested whether their financial limit will match Cohen's, who by all reports seems to be foaming at the mouth ready to throw the bank at Yamamoto. I can't see any other team ready to match what the Mets or Dodgers might do here. Time will tell

I’m honestly surprised how high it sounds like teams are willing to go for him. Wasn’t expecting this

how quickly we forget the legend of kei igawa

I'm not surprised at teams wanting to go big for him, but I am surprised that double cy-young winner free-agent blake snell is getting like 10% of the radio-waves non-mlb pitcher Yamamoto is.

Giant get Snell and they give themselves very good odds for a post-season appearance in 2024. 5 games off the wild-card last year and I see Snell as being able to make up most of that difference all things being equal

in that this is the hot stove thread, pls put an 'if' at the top of that!

Snell will not alter the giants’ fortunes no.

Kei igawa had what i am calling the robert lang effect, where if you get a guy (lang) who looks like another guy (jagr) surely they must be equal in terms of ability and outcomes

how quickly we forget the legend of kei igawa

― mookieproof, Wednesday, December 20, 2023 6:26 PM (one hour ago)

Daisuke Matsuzaka: How his shirt got me on Japanese TV

yamamo b there

Lol mookie, my bad

Jimmy the doomer

vry cool Shasta

He's at the Rams game tonight:

The Giants have been told they’re out of the bidding for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, per source familiar with discussions. They pushed hard but expectation is that he will end up in LA or NY.

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) December 22, 2023

Nah that turned out to fake

Ohtani is at the Rams game too.

Are you saying he not at the game? The pregame show said he's will be in the owners box.

He’s flying to Toronto.

Yeah saw a tweet that he pulled out (fake the wrong word my bad) Million photos of ohtani there, none of Yamamoto

https://x.com/byjackharris/status/1737953803813437924?s=46&t=ctYJJCHUEV_hBLwH73xO9A

Some tweets saying it’s down to Mets/Yankees/dodgers with at least one bid over 300mil

Welp, being told now that Yoshinobu Yamamoto IS NOT going to be at the Rams game tonight

The Rams were expecting him to be there, but plans apparently changed

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) December 21, 2023

The Yankees offer was $300 million over 10.years.
The Dodgers offer was $325 million over 12 years with signing bonus worth about $50 million.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 22, 2023

I guess the Dodgers are going to win 162 games a year for the next 10 or so years.

Are they going to sign Snall too?

one billlliiioooooon dollars

on two friendly Japanese blokes wtf is going on lol
bigger average + more years with the Dodgers. If these two don't turn out to be everything they've been promised to be this is going to be a very funny off-season to look back on.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

Dodgers payroll somehow going to be only 7th after all these moves.

Austin Barnes (noted worst hitter in baseball of 2023) is currently receiving nearly double what Ohtani gets in a year

Tyler Glasnow (until Yamamoto becomes official) has the biggest Dodgers take-home paycheck for 2024.

Bonkers stuff going on

MLBTR;

The deal comes with a $27.08MM average annual value. Regardless of the precise salary distribution, that’s the relevant factor for the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax picture. That pushes L.A. well into the third tier of luxury tax penalization. Roster Resource calculates the club’s CBT number in the $282MM range.

The Dodgers are set to pay the tax for a third consecutive season.

Fucking finally, maybe now there’ll be some movement in the market.

Free agency scoreboard:
Dodgers $1.053 billion
Rest of MLB $873 million

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) December 22, 2023

hell yeah we're winning