Ray’s Ramblings: Labor, Steals, Salary

We have a lot of things cooking behind the scenes, so gonna keep this one short today. A bunch of updates from folks in regards to the labor talks, an answer to how many steals Adalberto Mondesi will have this season, which manager was most successful using instant replay to their advantage last year and who has made the most career salary in baseball history?

LABOR UPDATE

Positive steps!

Here is what we’ve heard. Not only were the two sides talking Monday, but they agreed to talk again Tuesday.

The players union has agreed to drop its proposal for earlier free agency and lowered their proposal for reduced revenue sharing from $100 million to about $30 million. Talks continue tomorrow https://t.co/PpE6n8qUIX

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 24, 2022

Source: MLBPA withdraws proposal to allow players to get to free agency before 6 years. Made modified revenue sharing proposal as well https://t.co/NGqnSCf55K

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) January 24, 2022

The union on Monday also rejected most if not all of what MLB had proposed in the sides’ most recent meeting, per @EvanDrellich

— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) January 24, 2022

The union did reject MLB’s three proposals from last week. A source describes the union dropping FA eligibility before six years and dropping revenue sharing transfer from $100 million to $30 million as “major gives.” MLB not moving off 14 playoff teams or $600K ML minimum so far

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) January 24, 2022

MLB indeed plans to make a proposal tomorrow. Unclear exactly on what, but won’t be a global proposal covering every area.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) January 24, 2022

At the risk of being Debbie Downer: Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. The meeting was contentious. There is a lot — a lot — left to work out before there’s a new labor deal. This still could take a while.

But the fact that it didn’t go backward when it could’ve? W.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 24, 2022

ADALBERTO MONDESI – STEALS

Adalberto Mondesi has a career best of 43 steals. It is the only season of his career with 35 steals. Why? Cause he cannot stay on the field – and cause of Covid. Here are the numbers.

	Games	Steals	Per 162 Pace
2018	75	32	69
2019	102	43	68
2020	59	24	66
2021	35	15	69

That is remarkable levels of consistency in terms of pace, is it not? However, he just hasn’t played a full slate of games to date which has capped the overall number of thefts.

I ran a poll asking how many steals he will generate this season. Here are the results.

How many steals will Adalberto Mondesi have in 2022?

— Ray Flowers (@TheRayFlowers) January 24, 2022

People were extremely muted with their replies which (A) impresses me and (B) seems odd at the same time. Mondesi, with an ADP at the NFBC of 57.3, is certainly being drafted to steal way more than 21 bases. If he stole 35 bags I bet most taking him inside the top-60 overall would be disappointed. If he went .250-20-70-90-35 people would rejoice. But, even if he steals 35 bases, isn’t he more likely to go .250-9-42-60-35? Is he really going to stay healthy long enough to go 20/30? The numbers clearly show that he could produce a massive season. The facts are also equally clear that he simply has yet to prove he can withstand the rigors of an entire season.

THIS AND THAT

These cats have a plan.

Light sabers… are real.

Grayson Rodriguez is an elite pitching prospect of the Orioles… and he can also kick 40-yard field goals.

PiThCeRs ArENt aThLeTeS #40yards #progress #bigfistpumpsonly pic.twitter.com/oHixizvqDz

— Grayson Rodriguez (@G_Rodriguez16) January 4, 2022

Here are the leaders in successful replay challenges in 2021.

And what the hell. Here are all the players who, to date, have made $200 million in their careers. Which player on the list surprises you the most?

Mike Trout just misses out at slightly under $190 million, but he does have $334 million dollars in future salary coming his way.