NEWSLETTER
The food choices this week. They … have not been great. The Mom makes the best apple pie in the world, and she made a huge one for my birthday this weekend. So far, I have shared none of it, and am eating multiple pieces a day. Just because. And yes, a la mode.
•  Although at a superficial level, the most eye-catching part of this report is that the Mets have signed away long-time Cubs pitching prospect Oscar De La Cruz on a minor league deal, I think there’s even more going on here:
The @Mets today announced that they have signed 11 minor league free agents and invited nine of them to Major League #SpringTraining. https://t.co/SJmtuldLLK
— Mets Farm Report (@MetsFarmReport) November 4, 2020
•  If seeing a team signing 11 players and sending out 9 Spring Training invites in early November sounds a little odd today, that’s because it is a little odd. It’s early for that much movement on the minor league side. Anecdotally, what you see in early November is maybe one or two minor league signings per organization as they identified a couple really preferred targets whom (1) they know are not going to get a Major League deal, (2) they really like as potential upside plays to pair with their upper-level minor leaguers, and (3) they are willing to spend more for than the typical minor league salary. For the Cubs, each year, it seems like that’s about two or three guys we hear about in the first few weeks of November and they tend to be upside guys we like to dream on. (Then you go through a period of more minor league signings that are “depth” types, and then finally, you go through a period very close to Spring Training where you can sign “big league type” players on minor league deals to see what’s what in Spring Training.)
•  It’s always been a talking point that you could try to gobble up more of the minor league market by spending a lot more to lock guys down on minor league deals early in the offseason, but teams generally don’t do it. In fact, most teams simply don’t – as a matter of course – pay more for any players on minor league deals. Just the standard rate required by their service level, and and then to the extent there’s an extra incentive, it’s the rate they’ll be paid *IF* they get put on the big league roster. So, that is to say, when I see the Mets announce a boatload of early minor league signings, given the new owner and the expectation that they’re going to become a very spendy organization, my antenna immediately goes up.
•  So, are the Mets jumping the minor league market with cash? I would say … maybe? Six of those eleven players were already in the Mets org, so those are minor league RE-signings, and, heck, the Cubs have a whole lot of those, too. That is very normal right after a season ends. But the other five guys the Mets signed (and five is a lot) are really intriguing ones, including De La Cruz, Mallex Smith, (old friend) Arodys Vizcaino, Jose Peraza, and Mitchell Tolman. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if all five of those guys were highly-desirable early free agent targets that the Mets ponied up extra to ensure they could get them right away on minor league deals. I think there’s some financial weight being thrown around, and – get used to this sentiment – I don’t like that it isn’t the Cubs.
•  As for De La Cruz, who was frequently among the top pitching prospects in the Cubs system a few years ago, it’ll sting if he finally puts it together in another org. He had the right build, a strong arm, good velocity, good movement, and good command. For whatever reason, he just couldn’t miss enough bats despite all that. Worse, he constantly battled injury issues and was suspended for PEDs. He’ll pitch next year at 26, so it’s not like he’s old, and it’s not at all hard to see him finally breaking out as a reliever. It’s easy to see why he would be an early target for an org like the Mets.
•  Phones, clothes, vacuums, coffee machines, cameras, and much more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
•  The Justin Turner process is still ongoing, though it is very hard for me to believe – given everything else going on – that the league and players would want to make this any kind of real fight:
MLB and the Players Association are moving closer to a resolution on Justin Turner, sources tell The Athletic. Potential discipline aside, these questions remain: Is Turner experiencing symptoms? How did Turner become infected inside a supposedly secure bubble? 1/2
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 5, 2020
Other questions include: Does Turner, after being removed from the game in the eighth inning, plan to apologize for returning to the field to celebrate? Will the episode affect the Dodgers’ decision on whether to re-sign him as a free agent? 2/2
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 5, 2020
•  I started riffing on Twitter about TV issues, which I’ll probably turn into a post, though I don’t know when. It’s really important, but also complicated, stuff. It’ll take me a minute to write it up fully. So in the meantime, here’s the thread:
Sinclair – the Cubs partner in Marquee, Yankees partner in YES, and owner of the Fox RSNs – took a $4.2 BILLION hit to the value of its Regional Sports Network business in the third quarter. https://t.co/66w0leyxZR
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 5, 2020
You can't do a one-to-one here, obviously, but your takeaway as it relates to the Cubs: the RSN business nationwide probably took a huge hit in 2020 (the pandemic accelerated what was already fading bc of cord-cutting).
Possibly the worst possible moment to launch an RSN.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 5, 2020
To me, the most telling bit there is the acknowledgement that direct-to-consumer is coming (i.e., a standalone streaming app where you pay X dollars per month like Netflix). The cable bundle model – which was indirectly very lucrative for sports teams – has been dying for years.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 5, 2020
And in fairness to MLB, its interest is in protecting ENTIRE product, not just big-market teams. A direct-to-consumer could be great for the Cubs … not so much for the Pirates. That can be fixed with revenue-sharing, but boy-howdy is it complicated.
I guess this was a thread.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) November 5, 2020
