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Cleveland, strapped for money, intend to trade All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor by opening day, several rival teams have been informed. Lindor earned $17.5 million last season and is projected to earn about $21 million in salary arbitration in his final year before free agency
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 5, 2020
It would be great. But it’s just not realistic to think that the Cards would take on a one year risk like that, especially if the rumors from earlier in this thread are that he would never want to play in St Louis long term.
Of course, one must also account for the Nightengale kiss of death, whereby nothing he says ever seems to happen. He’s like the Jim Bowden of print media.
In the Lindor comments, there is a good case that the Mets line up really well in a trade with the Tribe. They have lots of MLB quality OF, which Cleveland badly needs. Lindor would get his star turn in New York. The Mets could probably give up Nimmo and Davis or Gimenez and not miss a beat.
As I predicted, it looks like the high end of the market is staying strong – at least these players believe it will be. Of course, the proof will be when they sign, but the bets are being raised.
JT Realmuto, Trevor Bauer, George Springer and DJ LeMahieu are all planning to decline the $18.9M qualifying offer by next Wednesday’s deadline. No surprise there. Bauer’s agent @AgentRachelLuba had already announced as much. Stroman, Gausman also have decisions to make.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2020
Let’s watch the market. That there is a signing this quick I consider a good thing. Hope some other teams join in.
First free agent deal of the offseason is done. Left-hander Robbie Ray and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a one-year, $8 million deal, a source familiar with the contract tells ESPN. Good start to the hot stove for Toronto, which will use Ray as a starter, and for Ray.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 7, 2020
Apparently, the Jays are going to be one the few spending teams this offseason.
The #BlueJays, rival executives say, could be as aggressive this winter in free agency as any team in #MLB .
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 7, 2020
8 million is more than I’d have expected Ray to get. He wasn’t very good this year and was just Ok last year. Interesting.
In a normal year, I wouldn’t mind Ray on a 1 year deal at $8 million. This year, I don’t think so. There are too many others problems to take care of.
One idea to consider: sign Andrelton Simmons and move DeJong to either 3B or 2B. It improves our defense overall and helps the offense a little.
MLBTR predicts a $12 MM salary for Simmons. Would he be better than Wong would have been? I guess the answer is yes if he returns to 2018 and prior form and no if you take the last two seasons.
P.S. They predicted $6 MM for Ray. Guess the Jays really wanted him.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/11/mlb-free-agent-predictions-2021.html
For those who attach any significance to what a gambler who calls himself “Incarcerated Bob” thinks (and he has 142K followers on Twitter), he says the Cardinals have expressed interest in Lindor. However, I am not starting a thread on this since the only comments I have seen in the mainstream media suggest just the opposite.
https://twitter.com/incarceratedbob/status/1325185772501151744
That was the guy who broke the Goldy news, right?
Still…yeah, not falling for that stuff this off-season.
What is freshest in my mind are rumors like this, which was in April.
**UPDATED RUMORS**
Source: Before MLB was shutdown #Cardinals #Rockies had deal for Nolan Arenado 90% completed — good chance this gets heated up again in offseason with Cards favorites— IB THE GAMBLER 🔌 (@incarceratedbob) April 20, 2020
I don’t believe for a minute that the Cardinals have any serious interest in Lindor or Arenado.
Too many uncertainties.
As 25 said, he got one big Cardinals trade right and as I noted, he has 142,000 followers. So an awful lot of people seem to care what he thinks. That particular post got a lot of attention on social media so I decided it was worthy of sharing here on this rumor thread, as well, with my own caution. I call attention to things now and then that I consider questionable, and it never means to imply it is an endorsement. You can make your own assessments, of course. The good news is no one has to pay here by the post… 😉
P.S. I’ve thought about starting a separate thread called Bad Takes from Cardinals Social Media, because there are some doozies being posted out there pretty much every day. But they include people’s names and I don’t want to challenge them personally, but rather take exception to what they are saying. FWIW, I would not have put IB’s tweet on that (still non-existent) thread.
I think they have interest in both Lindor and Arenado. Both are the type of player that they need and everyone knows it. I don’t know what the ‘new normal’ is going to be like. But if the economy and the fans come back for the Cardinals, and with Fowler and Andrew Miller and Carpenter no longer feeding off their bad contracts, the Cardinals should be able to afford Lindor or Arenado. Until Lindor and Arenado sign somewhere, the possibility of either of them joining the Cardinals exists.
I think Arenado will have more value a year from now because he will be past his opt out clause. It is difficult for teams to give up a ton for him now not knowing how long they will have him. Granted you would think he would opt in considering the economic situation but who knows what it look like a year from now.
As for Lindor, again you are giving up a ton for only one year unless you are prepared to immediately give him a Mookie Betts contract.
Considering the apocalyptic approach the Cardinal front office is taking this winter I can’t fathom any scenario where either one of these players would be in our plans in the near future.
There is something to be said for the idea of letting another team pay up to get Lindor’s walk year and then for the Cardinals to pursue him as a free agent. That is what happened with Machado, who went from the O’s to the Dodgers in trade and signed with the Padres as free agent.
On Arenado – even when past the opt out, which it seems right now there is no way he will take – I wonder if any team would take on his full salary commitment. Or would the Rockies be willing to buy down his contract just to get rid of him? That seems tough to stomach. So, I really wonder if those two may end up being married long term whether they like it or not.
Here is a more creative way to keep Lindor’s name out there. It is a question of whether the Cards would give up three cost-controlled years of DeJong for the hope they could convince Lindor to stay in StL after one season there. (They would also get one year of the difference in results between the two, but have to find a way to take on another $16 MM in salary in 2021. I bet this would be a showstopper.)
FWIW, I think I would rather keep open the possibility of having both players, by going the route of a free agent signing in a year. Of course, there is a risk that Lindor signs early and never becomes a free agent, but there is at least as good of a risk he goes somewhere else willing to pay more. He isn’t the only fish in the sea…
***Disclaimer – this is not a real trade***
But… If the Indians called the #STLCards today and offered Francisco Lindor (1 yr, $20Mish) for Paul DeJong (4 yrs, $46M), do you believe the Cardinals would accept the offer?
Not would you do it – would the Cardinals do it?
— Brandon Kiley (@BKSportsTalk) November 9, 2020
A team that allows Kolten Wong to walk over his relatively paltry salary isn’t looking to add more salary. This discussion is a case of not having anything else to talk about.
I tend to agree, gscottar. I hope it is not too irritating to share this stuff. I do it because it is what people are inventing to talk about these days when there is no real news or even rumors to report. That poll, on a made-up tradeoff, already has 1,100 votes.
Currently, almost 80% of the crowd says Mo would say no. And I agree with them. Barring the COVID vaccine being far more widely distributed than the first estimates of the (possibly/probably successful) Pfizer vaccine, the Cards wouldn’t be looking to add payroll in 2021 and probably would be looking to further cut in 2022. With Carlos, Carp, Dexter, Waino, maybe Yadi all moving on, they will be able to spend some money. It would be nice if that amount was $70M rather than $20M.
This tends to play into my theory that the high end of the free agent market will still be strong. Either four or five of the six eligible are rejecting the QO.
Marcus Stroman's decision to accept the #Mets qualifying offer leaves pitcher Kevin Gausman as the lone free agent trying to decide whether to accept the #SFGiants' $18.9 million qualifying offer, with the four others all planning to officially reject it.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 11, 2020
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