Assuming Wieters passes his physical he goes on the 40-man.
The Nats have a full 40-man
The Nats would prefer to trade Norris.
So do they trade Norris today?
There isn't a terrible rush. There are many names on the 40-man that I think could be DFA'd to the minors. Jimmy Cordero, a 25yo middling relief non-prospect. Raudy Read, a 23yo C trying to get over the hump of hitting in A+ ball. Jose Marmolejos, a hihg-average hitting first-baseman with questionable power potential. A couple others like Austin Adams or Rafael Bautista, who might be just good enough not to take a chance they get grabbed on waivers but are no big loss in general. One of these guys could also magically get injured enough to be placed on the 60 day DL.
Still if you can you'd rather not go through the hoops of removing someone just to bring them back a few days later so it'll be interesting to see if the Nats can make a deal.
What's on the table now? No one really knows. It's thought that there is a deal out there where the core is Pedro Severino for David Robertson but the idea that Severino would be enough for a major league caliber player is confusing. On one hand there's his defensive reputation. He's thought to be a plus defender, if not even better with a strong arm and good framing. Even if he can't hit, he's thought to be a shoe-in to make the majors as a back-up catcher, possibly for a long while. On the other hand is his offensive stats. Young, yes, but consistent. He doesn't hit for average. He isn't patient. He doesn't hit for power. He's not bringing anything to the table.
Perhaps the lack of stats is because of his aggressive movement up the minors. He's never able to really improve in place. That could be true about his acceptable hitting for average, which has remained steady as he climbed the ladder. But his patience (also steady) is so terrible and improvement would only make it bad. And his power has diminished as he's gone up. This suggests a ceiling of something like .250 / .300 / .340. Basically a good outcome is he becomes Steve Lombardozzi but slow and not nearly as good as putting the ball in play.
If he's the hold up, he shouldn't be.
Well interesting day. I'll update when we find out exactly what is going on.
Are there any teams that would be interested in trading for Norris?
ReplyDelete@ G Cracka
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it'll be Norris+ for Robertson (Sox still need a catcher). That's what all the buzz seems to be indicating. I'd be worried about what the "plus" is though
@Fries
ReplyDeleteI'm down with that deal. Four reasonably reliable late-inning guys are a lot better than three and we remain solid behind the plate.
Chelsea Janes's piece in today's WaPo seemed to indicate the Lerners don't want to go over the $162 mill mark this season. Trading Norris for Robertson just about gets them there. (Not that the spending habits of the Lerners is predictable.)
are predictable, damn!
ReplyDeleteA 3 team trade wouldn't surprise me. I think they will try to move Norris, who must really hate the Nats now.
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose the number 162 is magical because they could be butting up against the luxury tax? We look at the money paid in a particular year, but it's the average annual value that matters for the competitive balance tax, and while the deferrals should change things a bit, Cots baseball contracts would have them at 198.2 mil for the compiled average annual value for their player obligations and benefits, if you sub Wieters' 10.5 in for Norris' 4.2 million. Now they have to go out to 2021 to do it, so I guess that knocks the value down to 7 a year? Puts them at just under 195.
ReplyDeletePapelbon on a minor league deal?
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated topic, the new intentional walk rule is BS. MLB fails to understand that fans love an errant or dropped intentional ball, or better yet one that gets too close to the plate that turns into a hit. Those rare but highly enjoyable moments are certainly worth the 30-60 seconds eliminated from every couple of games. Just stupid.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, at least they finally eliminated the all-star game home field advantage nonsense.
Totally agree on the IBB rule. Ask Texas A&M how much fun an IBB can be. Average time savings gotta be about 40 seconds per game at best. How about we talk about how long commercial breaks are during nationally televised games if the game is too long?
ReplyDeleteAlso the "waitaminut, let me see if I wanna challenge that call" we get more often than IBBs
ReplyDeleteMike Rizzo might be the greatest hype man since Flavor Flav.
ReplyDeleteI emphatically do not like the new IBB rule. Aggressive base-running, dropped or passed balls, the batter getting a hit off of a pitch that was too close - all of these things happen sometimes, and they make for some of the most exciting plays in a game.
ReplyDeleteIn Rizzo we trust, but apparently the Lerners prefer Boras: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2017/02/23/loverro-lerners-side-stepped-rizzo-to-sign-matt-wieters/
ReplyDeleteRizzo's gotta be livid.
@Josh Higham - Pretty important distinction that this wasn't a report at all, just speculation by Loverro
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last comment. I think it was conjecture on Loverro's part. The Nats have been saying all offseason that they couldn't afford Wieters. They repeatedly said they would only consider signing him if his price came down to something like 1 or 2 years at $10 million per. Well, his price did come down to their range. They traded for Norris bc they figured they would not be able to afford Wieters. Plus, Wieters may not opt out. This is the same guy who took the one year qualifying offer from the O's at $14 million. He just waited until the last week in February to sign. Anyway, if he likes it I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed.
ReplyDelete