The takes are hot and so is the stove: Hot Stove 24-25

Free agency begins five days after the last out of the World Series. Notable free agents:

- Blake Snell (again)
- Max Fried
- Corbin Burnes
- some other guy, John Sewtoe? Idk, maybe he plays for the Brewers or something

Interesting to see how Boras approaches this winter given he got fired by Monty last year.

Athletic has an off-season timeline:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5884166/2024/10/31/mlb-offseason-schedule-key-dates-deadlines/?source=user_shared_article MLB’s offseason schedule

i put this on the white sox thread but their new manager is will venable

Juan Soto anyone?

Ok

And so the offseason begins: The Atlanta Braves are trading outfielder Jorge Soler to the Los Angeles Angels, a source tells ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 31, 2024

the battle for baseball supremacy in LA is renewed

White Sox opening at 500-1 to win next World Series seems kinda optimistic.

If the NYM sign Soto away from the NYY, Yankees' fans are going to lose it.

#HaloNation

If there are no lingering health issues, I assume the Yankees will cough up the extra year/$36M (especially if Soto leaves).

https://www.mlb.com/news/gerrit-cole-opts-out-of-contract-with-yankees-after-2024-season

Cole to LAD would be *chefs kiss*

yanks only have until tomorrow night to decide on cole. i would be stunned if they let him walk (and i'll bet he would be too)

Cole to LAD would be *chefs kiss*

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Saturday, November 2, 2024 12:58 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

Roberts would have him doing endless "always cover first" drills lol

Yeah I’m sure the opt out was just in case he turned out to be dogshit but the Yanks will surely be invoking their option.

i wouldn’t read too much into the opt-out i think cole is just covering his bases

No pun intended!

Jays want in on the Soto sweepstakes? Can it be?

I read on Twitter that he's on a plane right now, headed this way.

KC resigns Wacha for $51M/3y

That feels, excessive for him?!

Actually, I take that back. He’s been very reliable the last three years. 3.30 ERA and averaged 3.1 WAR.

wacha flocka paid

Ok

Right-hander Gerrit Cole is remaining with the New York Yankees on the four-year, $144 million deal that he had opted out of, sources told ESPN. Discussions on a potential contract extension will continue. Essentially, it’s the same as if Cole did not opt out.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 4, 2024

he was completely dominant against the best lineup in baseball for 2 games in the world series, pay the man his money!

huh. maybe i'm wrong and they'll extend him, but it sure seems like cole didn't actually want to leave and that the yankees knew this and made him blink

You know about the +1/35M thing that the yankees can activate to negate the opt out rite?

yes

oh i see what's happening. weird

is cole likely to be worth $36m in his age-38 season? he has a better chance than almost anyone, but i'm not sure it's a *good* chance. and in this new era of relative restraint (lol) i guess the yankees may 'need' that money to spend on soto

It feels like a gamble right? But I guess they view - or viewed at the time he signed this - him as the kind of pitcher who ages well and is still giving you something in his late thirties like Verlander. Wasn’t this year his first real injury?

huh. maybe i'm wrong and they'll extend him, but it sure seems like cole didn't actually want to leave and that the yankees knew this and made him blink

My first thought as well.

we got QO's

Juan Soto, New York Yankees
Corbin Burnes, Baltimore
Alex Bregman, Houston
Max Fried, Atlanta
Willy Adames, Milwaukee
Pete Alonso, New York Mets
Anthony Santander, Baltimore
Teoscar Hernández, Los Angeles Dodgers
Nick Pivetta, Boston
Christian Walker, Arizona
Sean Manaea, New York Mets
Luis Severino, New York Mets
Nick Martinez, Cincinnati

feel like pete alonso is in for severe disappointment this winter

turns 30 in a month, stats already trending down, bad fielder, prototypical guy who doesn't age well, agent scott boras. worried he's gonna hold out for a big deal that simply isn't forthcoming

Sort of like Conforto, who turned down a megadeal at the beginning of this walk year and ended up out of the game for a year.

*his

I find Alonso has made his fair share of excellent plays at first base, even if the stats don’t bear that out

feel like pete alonso is in for severe disappointment this winter

turns 30 in a month, stats already trending down, bad fielder, prototypical guy who doesn't age well, agent scott boras. worried he's gonna hold out for a big deal that simply isn't forthcoming

*his

I find Alonso has made his fair share of excellent plays at first base, even if the stats don’t bear that out

Brian Cashman says there are no contract extension talks going on with Gerrit Cole, per @martinonyc

Cashman says the Yankees were not comfortable adding another year to Cole’s contract, and he agreed to remain on his current deal with four years, $144 million remaining pic.twitter.com/Iqvh4Q4eQh

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) November 5, 2024

yeah that's a blink! nice try tho

in a sense it's still a W for cole because the yankees are basically admitting that his deal is an overpay at 4/144 bcuz they don't need to use the opt out cancellation as leverage to get him to return. confirmation for gerrit that he has an above market contract

that said, the opt out is an effective cancellation of the contract so the yankees could have in theory not offered him the same deal, which means they must have talked all this out beforehand and cole knew the yankees would still put the same offer back on the table, so it's not clear to me why both sides went thru the process just to remain back in the same place. there must be some contractual fine print or luxury tax loopholing or something going on

I feel like Alonso is perfect for the Yankees

they must have talked all this out beforehand and cole knew the yankees would still put the same offer back on the table, so it's not clear to me why both sides went thru the process just to remain back in the same place

oh, i doubt it! i think cole, recognizing the yankees desperately need him for them compete over the next four years, tried to pressure the yankees, who recognized that cole already had an overvalued contract and was famously a 12yo kid holding up a GO YANKEES sign and didn't actually want to go elsewhere. and that the yankees mostly won that standoff

almost counts as the incredibly rare instance of a mutual option being accepted by both sides

i think it was a "standoff" insofar as cole didn't get the option year added, but i think it was clearly all prearranged. because if they were playing hardball w/ each other, and cole was genuinely trying to leverage the yankees, then it follows that the yankees wouldn't come back to the table and say "hey, no harm no foul on that opt out, here's the same exact deal you just threw in the trash"

you have to assume boras knew long before today that there wasn't a better deal than 4/144 out there for him, and so i find it extremely hard to believe that cole would have opted out w/o knowing that the 4/144 offer would still be on the table, which leads me to believe this was all hashed out ahead of time, and also that there is some explanation be it luxury tax or whatever for why this whole charade went down just for him to end up on the same deal

i remain skeptical but am looking forward to jack curry blasting cole for being greedy and disloyal!