2010-2011 MLB Offseason Thread

[dfreely]

Orioles get JJ Hardy from the Twins for a couple of minor leaguers.

Royals hate winning, so they sign Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur.

Ellsbury

Sox have been shopping Ellsbury for some time, so he could be gone.

[packrat]

Orioles get JJ Hardy from the Twins for a couple of minor leaguers.

The Twins also included Brendan Harris in the deal. They should have been able to do better than that.

[dfreely]

JJ Hardy is really the only good player involved in that trade. Good defensive SS with a latent bat. The Twins definitely could have gotten more in return.

[dfreely]

So Cliff Lee ended up returning to the Phillies. That's a shocker, even for the insane offseason so far. This could be the best rotation in baseball since the Braves of the early 90's.

[dobie516]

Cliff Lee to the Phils! Wow! I read just about every news story about the Phils and No One had even given a hint that this would happen. What a great 1-4 in the rotation. Joe Blanton will be number 5 if they don't trade him. Lee goes pretty deep into games which will help the bullpen.

Can't wait for the season to start!

[dfreely]

I'd imagine they would try to trade Blanton to free up some salary, since he's easily replaceable. After the initial shock, I'm wondering what the point of signing Lee is. He's a good pitcher sure, but the Phillies already had a good rotation, and needed more help in the bullpen and lineup. And with three of their aces on the wrong side of 30, and a giant albatross in Howard, things could get ugly in a few years.

...really is one weird offseason.

[packrat]

The Twins have have announced they signed Tsuyoshi Nishioka to a three year, 9 million deal with a club option for 2014.

The Twins have made another curious trade. They traded catcher Jose Morales to the Rockies for reliever Paul Bargas, who was 5-4 with a 3.59 ERA and five saves in 67 2/3 innings for Class A Asheville. Coming into 2010, Morales had the back-up job locked up, but off-season wrist surgery cost him the start of the season. Drew Butera (son of former MLB-er Sal), who was originaly slated to start in AAA, was given the back-up job to start the season until Morales was ready to return. But his stellar defensive ability won him the role. Morales, however, has already proven that he can hit MLB pitching and his defense, while not the greatest, is acceptable. Why a single A pitcher? It's not like the Twins had to do another salary dump like they did with J.J. Hardy...

[dfreely]

I don't get many of deals the Twins make..

[dfreely]

Royals traded Greinke and Yuniesky Betancourt to the Brewers for four players. I don't know all the details about the four the Royals got back, but supposedly the best of them is a minor league pitcher who could potentially be a #2 or 3 starter in a few years. Seems like they could have gotten away with more.

[packrat]

The Pirates appear to be in a "pickle-of-a-jelly-jar-jam" (to quote Ned Flanders). They announced the signing of Kevin Corriea on Friday after 5:00 PM so they wouldn't have to clear a roster spot for him until today. With that signing they now have 41 guys on the 40-man roster. Rumor was they were stepping up efforts to trade Ryan Doumit and would complete a trade by Sunday. Unfortunatley, I don't think they could trade him for a hot dog vendor. So far no roster moves have been announced as of the close of business today, so I'm wondering if they might be in violation of some rule or something.