Well here is still quite a bit of activity in the baseball free agent marker as Madison Bumgarner ended up being the next top free agent to sign. It’s not surprise that Bumgarner got a sizeable deal 5 years for $85 million dollars, but it was a bit of a surprise that it was the Arizona Diamondbacks that signed him. There where no rumors or anything linking Bumgarner and the Diamondbacks, but they got the deal done.
Bumgarner’s contract is set up very interestingly. He’ll be paid just $6 million dollars next season. His salary jumps to $19 million dollars in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 he’ll be paid $23 million dollars. Then in the final year of his contract his salary drops down to $14 million dollars. Now in the three middle years of his contract $5 million dollars of his salary from each of those years will be deferred. That money will then be paid out to Bumgarner in the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.
There have been some rumors that Bumgarner took less money to sign with the Diamondbacks, but that hasn’t been confirmed. His name had been associated with teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox, but we don’t know if he received any type of offers from these teams.
It seems that the addition of Bumgarner would give the Diamondbacks a really solid big three in their starting rotation. You’d have to figure to would be Bumgarner, Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver in some order, but there are still reports out their that Arizona is still interested in trading Ray.
I’m not sure how much sense it makes for Arizona to bring in a pitcher like Bumgarner and then turn around and trade away Ray. The Diamondbacks do have veteran starter Mike Leake along with Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen and the two pitchers they acquired from the Houston Astros in the Zack Greinke deal Jon Duplantier and Corbin Martin to fill out the starting rotation if Ray is dealt.
It is possible that Ray could be use to bring back an outfielder that Arizona seems to need unless they’re going to give Yasmany Tomas a chance. Tomas is in the final year of his 6 year $68.5 million dollar deal; so this is the last chance for the Diamondbacks to get anything out of him. Tomas has spent the better part of the last three seasons in the minors, but don’t forget that he did hit 31 home runs in 2016.
Will have to wait and see what the Diamondbacks do with Ray and how their outfield shuffles out.
The Milwaukee Brewers made a couple of signings this past week and I think the best way to describe them is they where very Brewers like signings.
First Milwaukee signed outfielder Avisail Garcia to a 2 year $20 million dollar deal. Then the Brewers added 1st baseman/3rd baseman Ryon Healy to 1 year deal. The terms of Healy’s deal haven’t been disclosed yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.
With the signing of Garcia and the fact that Milwaukee hasn’t made any real effort to bring back free agent Eric Thames appears to mean that Ryan Braun will be moving to 1st base. There was talk of this happening last season and it didn’t, but with these moves it appears as though it’s almost a certainty this season.
Right now Healy would be the Brewers starting 3rd baseman unless they think that either Lucas Erceg or Blake Allemand might be ready to play full time at the major league level. There’s also a possibility that Milwaukee will bring in another veteran free agent to platoon with Healy at 3rd base.
The Brewers have been very busy in this early off season. Not only have they added Garcia and Healy, but they’ve also added two starting pitchers. Milwaukee has added left hander Brett Anderson to the starting rotation. They’ve also signed Josh Lindblom who’s been pitching in the Korean league the last couple of seasons. Lindblom should also find a spot in the Brewers starting rotation.
These are the kind of interesting under the radar type of moves that help keep the Brewers in the hunt for a playoff spot. Will have to see how these signing workout and if they add anyone else.
As far as big names go it seems that Josh Donaldson is the only one left on the free agent market.
There where reports a few days ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers where out on Donaldson, but yesterday anther report came out that the Dodgers are still interested in signing him. The Washington Nationals have made it clear that they’re interesting in signing Donaldson. National general manager Mike Rizzo came out yesterday and confirmed all these reports. There are also some reports that the Minnesota Twins would be interested in bringing Donaldson on board. Also the team that Donaldson played with last season the Atlanta Braves would also like to have him back.
It seems like the biggest question with signing Donaldson is how many years to give him. There are reports that Donaldson is looking for a 4 year contract. Donaldson just turned 34 years old earlier this month; so teams have to decide how they think Donaldson will be as a 38 year old.
Where do you think Donaldson will end up? and how many years do you think he’ll sign for?
Even with a loss last night the Los Angeles Lakers are still the top team in the Western Conference. At 24-4 the question was posed to LeBron James about the hot new term in the NBA load management and James had some interesting answers. James said “if I’m healthy I play” he added “I mean, that should be the approach. I mean unless we’re getting to like late in the season and we’ve clinched and we can’t get any better or any worse, it could benefit from that, but why wouldn’t I play if I’m healthy? It doesn’t make any sense to me, personally. “I mean, I don’t know how many games I got left in my career. I don’t know how many kids that may show up to a game and they’re there to come see me play and if I sit out, then what? That’s my obligation.”
James has played in all 28 of the Lakers game this season and is averaging 34.7 minutes per game. Now as the season goes on it wouldn’t be a surprise to see James sit out the 4th quarter of blow out games. It’s just common sense for the Lakers to want and James to be healthy for the playoffs, but it is nice to hear an NBA player that actually seems like he wants to play.
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