Angels consistently underperform; that's a pretty good quality manager and pitching coach pairing

Seemed to me Callaway had been promoted to one step beyond what he was good at. Managing was not for him. I know when I see a deer in the headlights and that was him.

Agree should be a good fit for the Angels. Time to get behind Trout and put a quality product out there.

Callaway had been promoted to one step beyond what he was good at.

The famous Peter Principal in evidence in baseball, too.

Indians haven't yet begun to clear out that roster. The official site still lists 40 on the 40 man plus 7 on the 60-day DL all of whom must be added back within days of the end of the World Series, I think. [Still included are Kipnis and others who are becoming free agents.] I cannof find the deadline for that change; perhaps it's all part of the roster setting before the Rule 5 draft which means roughly the end of November.

Meanwhile, the nontender deadline is also not for more than month:
"A team does not have to offer a contract to a player not eligible for free agency if his contract has expired, regardless of service time. If the player is not tendered a contract offer by the tender deadline (usually in the second week of December), the player becomes a non-tender free agent."


Why does any of this concern me? Mostly just my eagerness to be over and done with Danny Salazar [and to a much lesser degree a bunch of the rest of the bullpen guys]

Congrat's to Yan Gomes for catching the strikeout of Michael Brantley to cement the Nat's World Series victory last night.

Thank you to Joe Smith for easing the Nats to the win

What about Ass dribble?

So much for home field advantage. The Visitors won all 7 games of the WS.

Seems the Gomes trade really was a win/win! Happy for him.

The poor guy had an off year aided by the fact that Suzuki was the primary catcher there! But when injury hit Suzuki, there was Gomes.

He stuck it out and got the ultimate reward.

And I'm sure this was a tough decision for the Yankees - they talk about his season here but the playoffs were a disaster for him.

Yankees declined 1B/DH Edwin Encarnacion's $20 million club option for 2020.

He'll get a $5 million buyout instead. Encarnacion posted a strong .875 OPS with 34 home runs and 86 RBI in 109 games this season between Seattle and New York, but the going rate for defensively-limited sluggers has tumbled in recent years.

He'll turn 37 years old in January and may struggle to find a lucrative deal on the open market this winter despite his ongoing success as a veteran power bat.

My worries about bringing down the roster to 40 were overblown. The 47 on the board two days ago have been reduced by:

2 options turned down: Kipnis and Otero
3 Free Agents who could be resigned later: Puig, Flaherty, Clippard

Then there are the nontender candidates:
Francisco Lindor, Danny Salazar, Kevin Plawecki, Nick Goody, Cody Anderson, Mike Clevinger, Tyler Naquin, Nick Wittgren and A.J. Cole.
Besides the obvious Lindor and Clevinger, they might as well retain Wittgren and Naquin although he'll start the year on the IL. No reason to get rid of Plawecki, catchers are good to stockpile. I don't want Cole, I would let Anderson go after his return to the surgical rehab list. They could do better than Goody.

Room needed for McKenzie, Johnson, Tom. Not sure who else; Kyle Nelson is one year off.

A couple of tidbits I got off of MLB Network today.

Ken Rosenthal, on the show Hot Stove said "there is no way the Indians re-sign Lindor". He then reminded viewers that the longer Lindor stays on Cleveland the less they get back for him. He expects him to be shopped this winter, but then like Bauer if they don't get what they need out of it they keep him until the trade deadline.

A more surprising take was from Mark Feinsand on Yasiel Puig. Those of you who know who he is, this is a very prominant baseball writer for MLB.com. Feinsand said (surprisingly) that he would not at all be surprised to see Puig back on Cleveland.

He said Puig liked it there, likes Francona, likes his teammates and might very well take less to stay.

Personally I don't see it (a quick look shows me Puig played a handful of games in LF in 2016 so there's that) but those are some public comments on the Tribe early on this offseason.

He said Puig liked it there, likes Francona, likes his teammates and might very well take less to stay.

Lol

Those days are over.

Money rules!!

Seagull - I follow the game closely enough to know that is not true. I could give you all kinds of examples - in fact one just happened with Aroldis Chapman staying with the Yankees. He could have gotten more out on the market.

When Strasburg signed his last extension ($25 million per year) with the Nats he left money on the table. Goldschmidt signed with St Louis 5 years for $130 million and that's just a couple.

Heck, Mike Trout himself signed an extension worth $36 million per year. For 10 years. If he had played that situation differently he could have gotten so much more over those years. That annual value will be swamped easily just this offseason! And Trout is the best player in the game but he likes it where he is and is already well paid. But not top dollar paid.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/extensiontracker

Sure, some guys go for bottom dollar. But some guys do not. Some agents do, some do not. It all depends on the situation. Some guys want rings and will sign for less (see JD Martinez) to chase one. Then when they get one, priorities might change.

So it all depends. As for Puig, it's a position problem for me. He plays RF, and quite well. And it's Franmil's only position right now. So I don't see it.

Ok civ - you can celebrate!!!

Danny Salazar has elected to become a free agent.

Salazar was outrighted off the 40-man roster after being activated from the 60-day injured list. He opted to test free agency. He's the ultimate lottery ticket at this point, appearing in just one game since the 2017 playoffs.

Nov 4, 2019, 3:15 PM ET