NEWSLETTER
At the outset of this week, I held out hope that the four business days after Christmas and before the weekend would be enough to get some deals in the bag before the New Year. But I think I was wrong.
Instead, we sit here on December 28th with 80+ percent of the offseason’s expected transactions still ahead of us, and another impending three-day holiday weekend (typically, activity is light on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day).
It’s still possible that something’ll get done tonight, tomorrow ,or even over the weekend, but there’s really no way (and definitely no time) for everything to get done. I mean, just consider this ridiculous list of free agents still out there (in a sorta-kinda power ranking order, but the order really isn’t the point, so don’t hold me to it).
The volume of useful players is unbelievable:
- Yu Darvish, SP
- J.D. Martinez, OF
- Eric Hosmer, 1B
- Jake Arrieta, SP
- Lorenzo Cain, CF
- Mike Moustakas, 3B
- Alex Cobb, SP
Wade Davis, RPRockies signed him.- Jay Bruce, OF
- Jonathan Lucroy, C
- Lance Lynn, SP
- Logan Morrison, 1B
- Neil Walker, 2B
- Greg Holland, RP
- Carlos Gonzalez, OF
- Addison Reed, RP
- Todd Frazier, 3B
- Carlos Gomez, OF
- Eduardo Nunez, UT
- Jaime Garcia, SP
- Andrew Cashner, SP
- Lucas Duda, 1B
- Jon Jay, OF
- Matt Albers, RP
- Tony Watson, RP
- Jason Vargas, SP
- Alcides Escobar, SS
- Matt Holliday, OF
- Austin Jackson, CF
- Alex Avila, C
- Jarrod Dyson, OF
- Melky Cabrera, OF
- Jeremy Hellickson, SP
- Kazuhisa Makita, RP
- Seung-Hwan Oh, RP
- Chris Tillman, SP
- Howie Kendrick, UT
- David Hernandez, RP
- Jayson Werth, OF
- Jose Bautista, OF
- Mark Reynolds, 1B
- Adam Lind, 1B
- Brian Duensing, RP
- Koji Uehara, RP
- Wilin Rosario, C/1B
- Cameron Maybin, OF
- R.A. Dickey, SP
- Seth Smith, OF
- Chris Young, OF
- Yunel Escobar, 3B
- Francisco Liriano, SP/RP
- Andre Ethier, OF
- Miguel Gonzalez, SP
- Ben Revere, OF
- Chase Utley, 2B
- Wade Miley, SP
- Peter Moylan, RP
- Hector Santiago, SP
- Curtis Granderson, OF
- Mike Napoli, 1B
- Brett Anderson, SP
- Danny Valencia, UT
- Daniel Nava, OF
- Rajai Davis, OF
- Scott Feldman, SP
- Oliver Perez, RP
- Bud Norris, RP
- Craig Stammen, RP
- Sergio Romo, RP
- Fernando Abad, RP
- Tim Lincecum, SP
- Jorge De La Rosa, RP
- Brandon Phillips, 2B
- Clay Buchholz, SP
- Matt Belisle, RP
- J.J. Hardy, SS
- Ricky Nolasco, SP
- Boone Logan, RP
- Wade LeBlanc, RP
- Curt Casali, C
- Jason Motte, RP
- Stephen Drew, UT
- Miguel Montero, C
- Hideaki Wakui, SP
- Geovany Soto, C
- Chris Stewart, C
- Cliff Pennington, UT
- Jesse Chavez, SP/RP
- Joe Blanton, RP
- A.J. Ellis, C
- Dustin McGowan, RP
- Jose Lonaton, C
- Ubaldo Jimenez, SP/RP
- Trevor Cahill, SP/RP
- Tyler Clippard, RP
- Joaquin Benoit, RP
- Gregor Blanco, OF
- Michael Saunders, OF
- Rene Rivera, C
- Bartolo Colon, SP
- Glen Perkins, RP
- Trevor Rosenthal, RP
- Darwin Barney, UT
- Huston Street, RP
- Michael Cerami, 1B
- Chris Young, SP
- Hisashi Iwakuma, SP
- Pedro Alvarez, 1B
- Trevor Plouffe, 3B
- Jose Reyes, UT
- Franklin Gutierrez, OF
- Mike Aviles, UT
- Fernando Salas, RP
- Erick Aybar, UT
- Drew Storen, RP
- Adam Rosales, UT
- Carlos Ruiz, C
- Christian Bethancourt, RP/C
- Oswaldo Arcia, OF
- Michael Martinez, UT
- Anderew Blanco, UT
- Hyun-soo Kim, OF
- Jason Grilli, RP
- Edwin Jackson, SP/RP
- Jumbo Diaz, RP
- Dillon Gee, SP/RP
- Nick Franklin, IF
- Ryan Hanigan, C
- Blaine Boyer, RP
- Alezi Amarista, UT
- Craig Gentry, OF
- Andrew Bailey, RP
- Ike Davis, RP/1B
- Alejandro De Aza, OF
- Matt Garza, SP
- Craig Breslow, RP
- Tyler Collins, OF
- Peter Bourjos, OF
- Mike Pelfrey, SP
- Gordon Beckham, UT
- Jordan Lyles, RP
- Ryan Flaherty, UT
- Mike Moore, OF/1B
- Emilio Bonifacio, UT
- Anibal Sanchez, SP/RP
- Colby Rasmus, OF
- And, of course …
Ichiro Wants to Play! https://t.co/67QjvZdzZr pic.twitter.com/DHWVbcTPji
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) December 27, 2017
That’s nearly 150 names of guys who will be signing somewhere at some point. Are some of them going to sign Minor League deals? Yeah, sure. And some other players might not be signing anything this offseason (forced retirement, or waiting for an in-season deal), but there are still EASILY over 100 players who will need to get something done before the start of the season and it’s already about to flip to freakin’ January. Absolutely unbelievable.
Oh, and this has nothing to do with the seemingly expansive trade market, so … yeah. What in the world is going on? Is January just going to be nuts?
