It’s that time of year. The stocking are hung. The candles are lit. People are yelling on social media and in chat rooms threatening to stab people in the eye for giving them what they deem to be poor advice (someone actually told me to do things to myself that aren’t anatomically possible). Tis the season folks.
Andrew Benintendi will be a White Sox outfielder for a while after he signed a 5-year deal for $75M. An ideal #2 hitter, he figures to slide in behind Tim Anderson, and ahead of Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez. It might take a nuclear peace treaty level of strangeness for all three of those guys around Andrew to play more than 77 games together in 2023, but if they are healthy, Benintendi would be set up for a potentially significant season. Benintendi went 20/20 in his first season (2017) and followed it up with a strong 2018 (.290-16-887-103-21). He hasn’t runs much since though with a high of 10 thefts, and last season he hit only five homers. Still, he hit .304 last year with a .373 OBP, numbers pretty much in line with his 2017-18 effort. If he stays healthy and gets on base, success will follow.
Michael Brantley, who ended the year with shoulder surgery, has opted to return to the Astros on a one year, $12M deal. A limited mixed league option, Brantley has stolen seven bases the last four seasons while hitting 18 homers the past three year. However, his .288 average last season is a six year low, he’s a career .298 hitter, and he still got on base at a .370 clips last season. He’s a solid offensive performer for a team that is pretty chalk filled with power bats.
Carlos Correa… UH OH.
Michael Conforto had a totally lost 2022 season due to a shoulder issue. Many teams are interested in bringing in the slugger, and he’s looking for the old – multi-year deal with an opt-out. Look, I get it, but as I’ve said before, there is no way I’m giving a player a — you played great now you can leave to repeat that effort for another team. You either want to be part of the organization or you don’t. Yep, blanket no opt-out would be my call. Period. By the way, during his last full season of 2019, Conforto went .257-33-92-90. The last two seasons he played, again 2020-21, he appeared in 179 games going .262-23-86-92. Yet to see his 30th bday, it is really no surprise that there could be a lot of teams interested, as long as the bidding doesn’t get too intense.
A sure sign that last year was as good as it gets… Connor Joe was dealt the Pirates for Nick Garcia. For now, its not even clear how he fits in the Pirates’ lineup.
Garrett Hampson signed a minor league deal with the Marlins, which seems like an excellent move if he hopes to ever establish himself as anything more than the last guy ion the bench. He’s capable of 15 thefts, he’s hit it multiple times, while playing numerous defensive positions. The problem is that his bad has simply never developed and he’s posted a horrendous .288 OBP the last three years. An NL-only play at this point of his career.
Teams are still chasing 42 year old lefty Rich Hill. What a world.
This is what I’m talking about…
Max Kepler could be dealt after the Twins signed Joey Gallo to a one year, $11M deal. Of course, a lot depends on the health of perpetually injured Alex Kiriloff. Kepler is due $8 million next season with a $10M club option in 2024 which isn’t too bad a set of numbers given the market. Kepler has never take the hoped for step, and it’s been a while since his breakout 2019 effort (.252-39-90-98), but he’s just under 30 years of age and there is some hope that the new shift rules will help him. Speaking of that, Gallo is likely to see a batting average increase as well with the new rules, though just how much his sub.200 average the last three years will improve is anyone’s guess. Gotta think he could hit .220, right? My goodness. Seven hundred 52 games into his career the man is batting .199. He’s such a potentially productive player, and his .325 OBP is still better than the league average, that if he can boost his average twenty points the prodigious production of the past could return.
Some jeans from 1857… you interested?
Seth Lugo is now a Padre. A guy I’ve always liked, there seems to be some interest in returning him to a starting role, something he hasn’t done in about five years (2018 was his last season over 100 big-league innings).
In essence, the Red Sox let JD Martinez go and simply replaced him with Justin Turner who signed a 1-year, $15M deal (with a player option). Turner started slowly last season, but in the end, he hit .278 with a .350 OBP. The now 38 year old hasn’t show many signs of outright slippage, and what he provided last year wasn’t appreciably different than what JDM did. Here are the 2022 numbers.
Turner: .278/.350/.438 with a .343 wOBA and 123 wRC+
Martinez: .274/.341/.448 with a .343 wOBA and 119 wRC+
For his part, JDM signed a 1-year, $10M deal with the Dodgers to be their DH. He’s three years younger than Turner and a season removed from a .286-28-99-98 effort.
Sheldon Neuse, formerly of the Athletics, will be playing in Japan in 2023.
Ho, ho, ho.
Dansby Swanson signed a 7-year, $177M deal with the Cubs. He will likely hit at the top of the order for the Cubs, potentially second, and is coming off two seasons of 160 and 162 games played (he also played all 60 games during the Covid 2020 season). Playing daily has helped to swell his numbers to at 27-88-78 in 2021 and 25-96-99 last season. Swanson also swiped a career best 18 bags last season nearly going 20/20, so there will a lot of interest in his services. The addition of Swanson also means that Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal will be battling for the second base gig with Hoerner having a significant, i.e., huge, leg up.
Sounds like Bobby Witt will be the Royals’ shortstop this season. Witt, who famously went 20/30 as a rookie last season, therefore seems likely to lose the dual eligibility that he currently has having appeared at third base 55 times and shortstop 98 times last season. Now, he needs to improve with the glove. There were 24 men who played 800+ innings at shortstop last season, and Witte doesn’t exactly grade out well. In fact, the numbers suggest he needs a lot of work. Remember, out of 24 guys…
Witt was 21st in UZR.
Witt was 22nd in fielding percentage.
Witt was 24th in DRS.
A lot of work to be done.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
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