Free Agent Pitchers

[Ratsbuddy]

So, we have lost Montgomery by trade and are losing Wainwright via the retirement route. Liberatore is a HUGE question mark at this point. We will see in the next 24 hours if Flaherty is gone. That leaves us with Mikolas and Matz for 2024.

All this makes me wonder – who are going to be the free agent pitchers available for 2024? It seems to me like we will need to sign at least one starter.

r/Esteemed Rat

[ZTR]

All this makes me wonder – who are going to be the free agent pitchers available for 2024? It seems to me like we will need to sign at least one three starters.

FIFY

[CardsFanInChiTown]

There is going to have to be at least 1 trade (likely more) to clear out the OF and AAA as well. I don’t have a guess who that will be, but Yepez, Gomez, O’Neill, Carlson, Burleson, etc can’t all fit.

Walker and Noot are the only two guaranteed starters in the OF for next year in my opinion.

[Ratsbuddy]

So…..what does FIFY mean?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see now. You fixed it by putting three in there instead of just the one.

[1toughdominican]

That got me too…I thought FIFY may have something to do with a SP’er’s spin rate divided by his five inning 4 year avg. GIDR.

[Ratsbuddy]

So……does anybody have any idea who the free agent pitchers this off-season might be?

[gscottar]

Here is a list of next year’s free agent starters.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023-24-mlb-free-agents

Starting Pitchers

Matthew Boyd (33)
Carlos Carrasco (37)
Mike Clevinger (33) — $12MM mutual option with a $4MM buyout
Alex Cobb (36) – $10MM club option with a $2MM buyout*
Johnny Cueto (38) – $10.5MM club option with a $2.5MM buyout
Zach Davies (31) — $5.5MM mutual option with a $300K buyout
Jack Flaherty (28)
Chris Flexen (29)
Kyle Gibson (36)
Lucas Giolito (29)
Sonny Gray (34)
Zack Greinke (40)
Andrew Heaney (33) – $13MM+ player option with a $500K buyout
Kyle Hendricks (34) – $16MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout
Rich Hill (44)
Jakob Junis (31)
Brad Keller (28)
Corey Kluber (38) – $11MM club option
Clayton Kershaw (36)
Michael Lorenzen (32)
Seth Lugo (34) – $7.5MM player option
Lance Lynn (37) – $18MM club option with a $1MM buyout*
Kenta Maeda (35)
Tyler Mahle (29)
Sean Manaea (32) – can opt out of remaining one year and $12.5MM
German Marquez (29) – $16MM club option with a $2.5MM buyout
Nick Martinez (33) – two-year, $32MM club option; if declined, two-year, $16MM player option
Wade Miley (37) – $10MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout
Frankie Montas (31)
Jordan Montgomery (31)
Charlie Morton (40) – $20MM club option (no buyout)
Aaron Nola (31)
Jake Odorizzi (34)*
Shohei Ohtani (29)
James Paxton (34)
Martin Perez (33)*
Eduardo Rodriguez (31) – can opt out of remaining three years and $49MM*
Hyun-Jin Ryu (37)*
Luis Severino (30)
Max Scherzer (39) – can opt out of remaining one year, $43,333,334*
Blake Snell (31)
Ross Stripling (34) – can opt out of remaining one year, $12.5MM
Marcus Stroman (33) – can opt out of remaining one year, $21MM*
Noah Syndergaard (31)*
Jose Ureña (32) – $4.5MM club option with a $500K buyout
Julio Urias (27)
Vince Velasquez (32)
Michael Wacha (32) – two-year, $32MM club option; if team declines, Wacha has $6.5MM player option (contract also contains $6MM player options in 2025-26)
Luke Weaver (30)
Alex Wood (33)

[1toughdominican]

Wacha hasn’t pitched since the end of June, but he’s a combined 19-4 with a 3.13 ERA from ’22-’23.

[LACardFan]

I mean, you can look at the pitchers offered at the deadline to see who is available:
1. Lucas Gioloto
2. Jordan Montgomery
3. Marcus Stroman
4. Michael Lorenzen

If the Cardinals prioritized three of those at the start of free agency and forgot about Ohtani, they might have a chance at landing 1-2.

Gioloto is friends with Flaherty. Perhaps they could be a package deal (not $$ wise, but maybe want to play together).

[TexasCard]

Yeah they ain’t shopping in the expensive isle. They’ll be going for the bargin bin again. Bank it.

[Ratsbuddy]

Blake Snell is the one that seems to have caught my eyes. I’ve watched him pitch a little lately. From what I’ve seen it looks like he is throwing the ball pretty good.

Then again, 2-3 innings here and there is a small sample size.

[blingboy]

There’s guys wanting to come back from Korea and Japan too. Mo likes that aisle.

[Ratsbuddy]

gscottar,
Thanks for the list. That is what I was looking for. Sure seems like alot of pitchers that are going to be available. Sad thing is that I don’t see any World Beaters or #1 Aces on the list.

With that many pitchers sometimes I wonder if Free Agency has been good for baseball?

r/Esteemed Rat

[1toughdominican]

There’s at least 3 HOF pitchers on that list.

[Ratsbuddy]

But all three, with the exception of Ohtani, are well past their prime and are no longer an Ace.

[1toughdominican]

Yeah, Kershaw’s washed up, but I’d take him for Nado, DeJong and Flaherty…

[1toughdominican]

I’d take a chance on Wacha and with the money they save that can hedge his shoulder with Lloyd’s of London…

[blingboy]

99 year old Rich Hill has more IP this year than anybodu we have except Mikolas. We do need to remember it doesn’t take a lot to be an improvement. We need to remember it because that’s probably what Mo is thinking.

[Brian Walton]

rats asked:

With that many pitchers sometimes I wonder if Free Agency has been good for baseball?

For owners, no. For players, absolutely and without question.

[Ratsbuddy]

For owners, no. For players, absolutely and without question.

Granted. Which raises the centuries old question or comment:

“The employees work for the employer…….”

[bicyclemike]

Free agency was long overdue. It took awhile in the movie business as well, but not as long as it did in baseball.

On those list of pitchers, German Marquez is a guy who can be real good, but I am not sure of his health situation. If healthy, he might be under-valued and a guy worth taking a shot at bringing on board.

[Andrew Crause]

Cardinals should be on Yamamoto from Japan for sure they weren’t one of the teams scouting him in Japan a few weeks ago. Would have some interest in a flier on Bauer and/or Tyler Beede from Japan as well.

Pitchers in the MLB that we should target are Nola and Gray.

[Thegreyghost]

OPTION 1

I’D target 2 or 3 of Cobb, Wood, Snell, Montgomery, Nola and maybe a flyer incentive laden deal on Montas if can be shown he is healthy…they probably will need 3 starters minimum.

If Roki Sasaki in Japan is available the cardinals need to be all over that transfer, could potentially solve there problem of a frontline starter.

OPTION 2

They could sign Ohtani and trade Goldschmidt….that would give you an Ace Pitcher and a tremendous 1b when he doesn’t pitch and then you could get more starting pitchers for Goldschmidt in the trade.

The likelihood of Dewitt paying for Ohtani is to say the least very very remote…like it’s not happening.

They will also need at least 2 or 3 relief pitchers minimum; they have been dreadful this year.
That could be worth watching b/c their track record with free agent relievers is spotty at best.

In house starting Rotation candidates right now are Mikolas, Matz and McGreevy with a strong end to the season at Memphis…that’s a little scary to say the least…and not for opposing hitters.
Graceffo I’m not sure what to think on him right now.

The bullpen in house I would guess is Helsley, Gallegos and then anybody’s guess after that.

[Thegreyghost]

Money should not be much of an excuse as coming off the books is Wainwright $18.5 million, Montgomery’s $10 million, Flaherty’s $5.4 million, Stratton’s $1.8 million, Ver Hagens $3 million and Dejong’s $9.1 million….that’s just shy of $50 million (salaries according to Sportrac) and payroll was already down this year to 16th in baseball at $154 million.

[gscottar]

As Andrew Crause mentioned this guy is supposed to be the next big thing out of Japan.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=yamamo004yos

[Author]

Posts