Mega Thread MLB season 2024

Remove this Banner Ad

Now that the Home Run Derby and All-Star game are behind us, attention will turn to the upcoming trade deadline, which is 14 days away (31 July). We still don't have the blockbuster trade just yet, as teams continue to work out where they stand in terms of making the post-season.

The Cleveland Guardians have re-signed RHP Zak Kent to a minor league contract, a few weeks after designating him for assignment to create a roster spot for RHP Matthew Boyd. Kent has not pitched since 14 April, and it was announced that he is going on the minor league IL for a sprained elbow in his throwing arm. Kent is yet to make his MLB debut, after being drafted by the Rangers in 2019. He made it to Triple-A with the Rangers in 2022 but has been out of action for much of the time since the start of the 2023 season.
 
Speaking of the Rangers, their GM, Chris Young, told reporters that they hope to be in a buyer position by the trade deadline. The defending world champions currently sit 46-50 after the first half of the season, which sees them 7.5 games outside an AL wild card spot. They are five games behind the Mariners for the lead of the AL West.

nypost.com

Unsolved MLB mysteries as trade deadline approaches

Even with much of the season played, there remains so much mystery about an MLB trade deadline two weeks away.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
The Chicago White Sox designated catcher Martin Maldonado for assignment. The former Astros catcher had signed a one-year contract with the White Sox in the off-season, for a guaranteed $4.25 million salary (in the form of a $4 million salary and a $250,000 buyout on a $4 million club/vesting option for 2025). The option would only have vested had Maldonado had made 90 appearances at catcher for the White Sox, but he leaves the organisation with 48 appearances under his belt.

At the time of being designated, Maldonado had been batting an awful .119/.174/.230, for a wRC+ of 11, which is dead last in the majors among batters with at least 140 plate appearances.

Maldonado had been valued for his work behind the plate, particularly when Dusty Baker was managing the Astros, but according to his metrics, even that is falling off. Over his career, Maldonado has 58 Defensive Runs Saved, but was at -10 last year and is at -8 already in 2024.
According to reports, the White Sox will recall Chuckie Robinson from Triple-A to take the roster spot of Maldonado, and he will be competing with Korey Lee for time behind the plate when baseball resumes following the All-Star break.



chicago.suntimes.com

White Sox announce signing of Nick Senzel, DFA Martin Maldonado, option Lenyn Sosa to Charlotte

White Sox also designate Danny Mendick for assignment.
chicago.suntimes.com chicago.suntimes.com
 

Log in to remove this ad.

As mentioned yesterday, the White Sox have now announced that they have signed infielder Nick Senzel. In order to create a roster spot for him, the White Sox designated infielder Danny Mendick for assignment, and optioned infielder Lenyn Sosa. Mendick signed a minor league contract with the White Sox and was promoted to their roster in late April. He has appeared in 47 games for the White Sox, hitting .197/.243/.318 in 141 plate appearances.
 
Former All-Star first baseman Jared Walsh has been released from his minor league contract by the Chicago White Sox. Walsh opened the season with the Texas Rangers, filling in for the injured Nathaniel Lowe. He was ineffective at the plate, hitting just .226/.317/.321 in 60 plate appearances in 17 games for the Rangers and when Lowe was healthy again, the Rangers designated him for assignment. The White Sox signed Walsh a week later and sent him to Triple-A Charlotte.

Walsh has continued to struggle at Triple-A level, striking out at 36.9% of the time, and hitting just .185/.289/.415. That was insufficient for the White Sox to continue to persist with Walsh, especially with a slash line of .159/.250/.293 over his last 176 plate appearances at the major league level since the start of 2023.
 
The New York Mets are in agreement with catcher Logan Porter on a major league deal, according to reports, pending a physical. Porter has options and will not necessarily be put on the active roster, but it appears that he will receive a 40-man roster spot. The Mets do not currently have room on that roster and will need to make a move. Porter triggered an opt-out clause in his contract with the Giants earlier this week, forcing the Giants to either add Porter to their 40-man roster or trade him to another team that would agree to put him on their 40-man roster. It appears that the Mets will give Porter that opportunity, despite Porter hitting just .194/.324/.323 in the majors in 2023 (albeit only in 38 plate appearances).

If and when the deal becomes official, Porter will serve as depth to the current Mets catchers of Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens. Alvarez is a career .231/.305/.450 batter for a 110 wRC+ with strong defensive grades, while Torrens has hit .283/.333/.549 for a 149 wRC+ since joining the Mets six weeks ago.

 
The Tigers have won 9 of their last 11

Lots of talk about trading Skubal

LETS TALK BASEBALL: ANY TRADE INVOLVING TIGERS ACE AND AL CY YOUNG LEADER TARIK SKUBAL MUST INCLUDE SHIPPING JAVY BAEZ OUT OF TOWN; WILL ALSO LIKELY INCLUDE CATCHER JAKE ROGERS

The Detroit Tigers are in a position at this years MLB trade deadline where they can be both loved by fans but absolutely loathed by fans and it all centers around Tigers President Scott Harris and if he chooses to deal AL Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal.

The rumor mill has been supercharged over the last week as the MLB is in the All-Star-Break and teams are interested in the services of left hander Skubal for the remainder of this year and all of next before he is set to become a free agent, and rightfully so.

Skubal is a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher with multiple years of team control. He’s a leading American League Cy Young award candidate with a record of 10-3, an AL-best 2.41 ERA, and 140 strikeouts across 116 innings of work. He has the ability to hit 102mph on the radar gun as has been displayed this year at Comerica Park.

So, it goes without saying the Tigers fan base would be rightfully angry if he's sent out of town, but the team has a golden opportunity here...

Any deal must include Javy Baez and the remaining $70-ish Million and remaining 3 and a half years of his contract. Baez is one of the league’s worst players and I don't need to hit you with numbers to prove my point. If you watch the game you know his signing was a bust, but the Tigers have the chance to dump his contract in any would-be trade involving Skubal and they MUST insist that Baez be taken on.

Any trade involving Skubal will almost have to include catcher Jake Rogers who at this point is Skubals personal catcher. He's the only catcher he knows and the chemistry between the two is off the charts. He rarely shakes off Rogers calls and they have a great on-field and off the field relationship. Any team who wants Skubal will surely want Rogers. They'd be foolish not to.

The Tigers have a catcher in waiting in Toledo by the name of Dillon Dingler. In 239 at bats in Toledo Dingler is batting .297 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI's. In short, he's a power hitting catcher with outstanding numbers and that's something you don't get with catchers very often.

Couple in the fact that any team who wants Skubal will surely have to throw in a high-level prospect or two, even with them taking on Baez nearly $70 million contract.

I'm not saying I want to see Skubal be traded, however I get it if it happens.

Skubal goes, Baez goes, Rogers goes.

The Tigers dump their largest contract, are able to promote Dingler who has been cooking in Toledo and is ready, and the team gets a nice haul of prospects.
Click to expand...
 
One of the things that makes the MLB unique when compared to other professional sports in the USA is that drafted players do not have a particular salary assigned to them when they are drafted. Teams have the flexibility to offer a signing bonus that is higher than the recommended slot value for that draft position and may also go (and often routinely) go "underslot" (i.e., offer a signing bonus that is less than the slot value).

Often teams are required to go overslot when trying to sign high school players that may have already committed to a college. For example, the Philadelphia Phillies have reportedly signed second round draft pick OF Griffin Burkholder for $2.5 million, which is almost double the approximate $1.35 million slot value associated with the 63rd overall pick. Burkholder had been committed to attending West Virginia.

The Royals went slightly overslot in signing their second round draft pick LHP David Shields, reportedly paying him $2.3 million compared to a slot value of $2.28 million for the 41st overall draft selection. Shields had been committed to going to Miami after he finishes high school.

In contrast, the Colorado Rockies were able to agree to an underslot deal with their 42nd overall draft pick, OF Jared Thomas. Compared to the slot value of $2.22 million, the Rockies agreed to a $2 million bonus with Thomas.

The White Sox were able to sign their top two draft picks from the 2024 draft. LHP Hagen Smith agreed to an $8 million bonus from Chicago, while second rounder Caleb Bonemer will receive a $3 million signing bonus from the White Sox.

Oakland signed their first round draft selection, 1B Nick Kurtz, to a deal worth $7 million, which is significantly under the $8.37 million slot value. The A's will then use that $1.37 million difference to try to sign many of their later draft picks (Oakland selected a number of high school pitchers with the later picks in the draft and will attempt to convince them to backtrack on their college commitments to turn pro).
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

The Los Angeles Angels have designated RHP Adam Cimber for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for LHP Jose Quijada, who has been reinstated by the Angels from the 60-day IL. Quijada underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2023. Quijada has 108 2/3 innings of major league pitching to his credit, with a 4.89 ERA, a 30.6% strikeout rate and a 13.8% walk rate. Cimber has previously pitched for the Padres, Guardians, Marlins and Blue Jays, with a 18.4% strikeout rate and a 5.8% walk rate. However, Cimber has posted an ERA in excess of 7 in both 2023 and 2024 and has landed on the IL for shoulder issues in both of them.
 
Aledyms Diaz was recently released by Oakland and is now back with Houston. He signed a minor league deal with the Astros just over a week ago and had his contract selected by the Astros today. Houston optioned infielder Grae Kessinger and designated infielder David Hensley for assignment. Diaz was a disaster in Oakland, hitting .229/.280/.337 in 2023 and only .103/.133/.103 in 30 plate appearances in 2024 amid long stretches of unavailability through injury. The A's are required to pay the remainder of his $8 million less the prorated league minimum that Houston owes Diaz.

 
The Los Angeles Dodgers have designated LHP James Paxton for assignment a day after he started for the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball against the Red Sox. Paxton signed with the Dodgers on a one-year contract that paid him a $3 million signing bonus, a $4 million salary, a $2 million roster bonus for making the Opening Day roster, and a series of $600,000 and $1 million bonuses that unlock periodically depending on the number of games started. Paxton has made 18 starts this season, which was the last milestone he needed to max out his salary. Accordingly, the Dodgers have paid Paxton $13 million so far this season, in exchange for a 4.43 ERA in 18 starts (tied with Glasnow and Stone for the most starts by a Dodger pitcher so far this season). While his ERA is average, the other statistics suggest that Paxton was not pitching effectively. He has a 16.4% strikeout rate for the season, and a 12.3% walk rate. He managed .267 BABIP for the season, notwithstanding a 90.8 mph exit velocity and a 43.3% hard hit rate. Since 5 June, Paxton has an ERA of 6.03 in 37 1/3 innings across eight starts.

The Dodgers will soon welcome back Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw to their rotation, while the Dodgers seem set to promote prospect RHP River Ryan to make his MLB debut this week. To bring Ryan and Kershaw onto the active roster would require roster moves to be made, and it seems that the designation of Paxton for assignment is the first such move.

 
The Braves are really struggling, at the moment they look like they will shortly drop out the wildcard spots.
 
The San Francisco Giants reinstated LHP Robbie Ray from the 60-day IL and he will make his season debut for the Giants against the Dodgers in today's game due to start in the next hour or so. The Giants created roster spot for Ray by sending RHP Keaton Winn to the 60-day IL (creating a spot on the 40-man roster) and optioned Luis Matos and Randy Rodriguez to Triple-A Sacramento to create room on the active roster for Ray and recent waiver claim Derek Hill.



The Giants traded pitcher Anthony DeSclafani and outfielder Mitch Haniger to the Mariners in exchange for Robbie Ray, who was part-way through his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery that happened last May. The Mariners then traded DeSclafani to the Twins in exchange for Jorge Polanco. DeSclafani suffered an injury during Spring Training and will miss the entire 2024 season. Haniger has not performed well for the Mariners so far this season.

It's been 14 months since Ray last threw a pitch in a game and when healthy and on top of his form, has been one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. He won the AL Cy Young in 2021 with the Blue Jays when he collected 284 strikeouts and had an ERA of 2.84. He then signed with the Mariners as a free agent after that season and pitched to a 3.71 ERA through 189 innings. Memorably, he gave up a bomb to Yordan Alvarez in the playoffs that officially eliminated the Mariners from the postseason that year.

Ray joins a rotation featuring LHP Blake Snell, who has struggled to adjust to Oracle Park after winning the NL Cy Young in 2023 with the Padres, RHP Logan Webb, RHP Jordan Hicks and LHP Kyle Harrison. Harrison has a 3.86 ERA in 17 starts in his first full MLB season, while Hicks started the season well in his first campaign as a starter but has shown signs of fatigue as the season reached its half-way point.
 
The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed shortstop Nick Ahmed to a major league deal and put Miguel Rojas on the IL. Ahmed has played previously for the Diamondbacks and Giants so is plenty familiar with the NL West. He was released a fortnight ago by the Giants after hitting .232/.278/.303 in 172 plate appearances for San Francisco, appearing in 52 games.

The Dodgers will only owe Ahmed the prorated portion of his MLB minimum salary with the Giants paying him the remainder of his salary.

 
Kevin Kiermaier has told reporters that he plans to retire from the MLB at the end of the 2024 season. Kiermaier, now 34, began his career after being selected by the Rays in the 31st round of the 2010 draft, and he received a $75,000 signing bonus. Kiermaier cruised through the minors and made his MLB debut for the Rays in 2013, quickly cementing himself as one of the top centre fielders in the game, but also one who suffered injuries thanks to his fearless style of play. By the end of 2016, Kiermaier had played in 365 games for Tampa Bay, hitting .258/.313/.425 for a wRC+ of 105, with 44 stolen bases. He signed an extension in the 2016-2017 offseason worth $53.3 million over six years, with a $13 million club option for 2023 that included a $2.5 million buyout. Kiermaier kept up his style of play and never reached 130 games played in a season over that stretch (albeit with the COVID-shortened 2020 season mixed in among those seasons).

Kiermaier dealt with a torn labrum in his left hip that forced him to miss the remainder of the season after surgery in July. The Rays decided to pay the buyout rather than exercise the club option, so Kiermaier signed a one-year, $9 million deal with the Blue Jays in that off-season, putting together a reasonable bounce-back season in 2023, hitting .265/.322/.419 for a wRC+ of 104 in 129 games played for Toronto. Kiermiaer signed a new one year deal with the Blue Jays last off-season, worth $10.5 million, but his play at the plate has cratered, since he's hitting just .195/.239/.314 for a wRC+ of 55.

With the Blue Jays almost certain to miss the playoffs and Kiermaier still valuable for his glove in centre field, it's a question of whether he finishes his career in Toronto or whether he spends the last few months of his professional career in another team.

www.tampabay.com

Blue Jay, former Rays star Kevin Kiermaier to retire after season

From 31st-round draft pick to 4-time Gold Glove winner, “it’s just been the best journey I could ever ask for,” he says.
www.tampabay.com www.tampabay.com
 
The Boston Red Sox are in agreement with manager Alex Cora on a contract extension that keeps him in the dugout at Fenway Park for three more seasons. Cora will make at least $7 million salary in each season.











 
We're coming ever closer to the trade deadline and reports are starting to emerge regarding players who may be on the move before the deadline.

According to reports, the Baltimore Orioles are interested in fortifying their starting rotation and have been looking at Cubs starter, RHP Jameson Taillon. The Orioles are not the only club interested in Taillon, with the Yankees and Red Sox also connected to him.

Taillon is contracted to the Cubs to the end of 2026 and is due $18 million in each of the next two seasons. He has pitched to an ERA of 2.96 so far this season (compared to 4.84 ERA in 2023), but his underlying stats suggest that it's more good luck than good management that Taillon has been more effective at run prevention this season compared to last. Taillon has a 19.1% strikeout rate so far in 2024 and a BABIP of .275.

www.audacy.com

Jameson Taillon, veteran Cubs relievers could be on the move at the trade deadline

The Cubs’ focus in trade talks as the deadline looms on July 30 will be on 2025 and beyond, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Monday. The Cubs don’t plan on acquiring any rental players whose contracts expire after the 2024 season.
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com
 
The Blue Jays are likely to be sellers at the deadline, but it seems that the Toronto front office has determined that they are only prepared to shift players on expiring contracts. This likely means that LHP Yusei Kikuchi, RHP Yimi Garcia, RHP Trevor Richards and catcher Danny Jansen will be traded before the deadline, since they are all free agents at the end of the current season. It is not expected that the Blue Jays will trade RHP Chris Bassitt (contracted to the end of 2025), RHP Kevin Gausman (contracted to the end of 2026), 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr (under club control to the end of 2025) and SS Bo Bichette (under club control to the end of 2025).

www.sportsnet.ca

Breaking down trade scenarios for Blue Jays' top candidates

While many teams remain undecided on how to proceed ahead of the trade deadline, the Toronto Blue Jays know what’s next: They’re selling. Who's going and who's staying? Ben Nicholson-Smith takes a look.
www.sportsnet.ca www.sportsnet.ca
 
The Dodgers officially reinstated LHP Clayton Kershaw from the IL overnight, and to create a roster spot on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers designated RHP Yohan Ramirez for assignment. The Dodgers acquired Ramirez from the Mets earlier this season in exchange for cash, and he has pitched 29 1/3 innings for Los Angeles with a 5.52 ERA, as well as giving up a .337 BABIP and a 63.3% strand rate. Ramirez has bounced around the league so far this year, having started the year with the Orioles, then going to the Mets and then the Dodgers. He'll now be looking for his fourth club for the season. Given the proximity of the trade deadline, the Dodgers have five days to either trade him or pass him through waivers (which takes 48 hours).
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Mega Thread MLB season 2024

Similar threads

BigVic
MLB.TV 2024 season
Replies
11
Views
780
RPCB
RPCB
Dixie Flatline
MLB Hot Stove 2023-2024
30 31 32 33 34
Replies
834
Views
15K
Dixie Flatline
Dixie Flatline
MatthewB
MLB Season 23
44 45 46 47 48
Replies
1K
Views
29K
Big Unit 30
Big Unit 30
Dixie Flatline
MLB 2022-2023 hot stove
34 35 36 37 38
Replies
943
Views
24K
Dixie Flatline
Dixie Flatline

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top