The baseball offseason is a dark, murky void in the hearts of all who love its warm embrace from the middle of February through the end of October. The three-and-a-half month long void can be a slow drudge, OR… you can take the more positive approach (like me) and play virtual General Manager. It’s a much easier game than fantasy baseball, but your cunning intellect is the only thing that can make or break your time as you count away the days until the start of Spring Training.
All of this sounds crazy and makes no sense, but I assure you, we all do it every day. That’s right; there are teams that have pieces missing and guys who would probably fetch more than they’re contributing to the team. Sometimes the one person who knows what’s best for the team is you. This is how the rumors get started, and this is how we keep the offseason interesting. So, without wasting anymore of your time, here’s the latest buzz around the league.
Who’s on first?
I
n case you forgot, Todd Helton retired at the end of the 2013 season which leaves a huge hole at first base for the Colorado Rockies roughly the size of a career .316 average.
Three of the top free agent contenders on the radar are Justin Morneau, Mike Carp and James Loney. Morneau might make for an interesting choice as he wasn’t able to hit a home run in the 30 games, including the playoffs; he played in Pittsburgh after he was traded by the Minnesota Twins. The high altitude may assist him in the field.
Loney found new life in his bat in Tampa as he hit .299 after a career-low in 2012 between his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. He’s always had a solid eye, so he would certainly make more a solid candidate.
As for Carp, he had a breakout year with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox as he hit .296 with nine home runs and 43 RBI in only 86 games.
The one downside is that he is a career .188 hitter in 38 games against a National League team. Realistically of the three, Loney looks like the top dog especially with his seven years served in the NL West with the Dodgers.
Who is likely to be signed first?
Here’s a fun game: Juan Uribe and Jhonny Peralta are both on the free agent market, but which one of the two is most likely to be signed first? This answer is not as easy as it may look, especially after Peralta was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. As we may remember, Peralta came back from suspension and helped the Detroit Tigers best the Oakland Athletics in the American League Division Series clean as a whistle.
What’s actually kind of peculiar about these two is that their careers aren’t all that different. They both can play shortstop, third base and second base for starters. Their career stats are somewhat similar: Peralta- .268 with 156 home runs and 698 RBI and Uribe- .253 with 169 home runs and 694 RBI. Uribe has more triple (43) and Peralta has more doubles (295) and they’ve both tallied more than 1,300 hits. The one advantage that Peralta (31) has is that he’s three years younger than Uribe (34). The one advantage that Uribe has is that he’s a two-time World Series champion (2005 and 2010). Your call!
Which Second-Chance Signing Will Make it to "The Show?"
Here’s another fun game: Which of these two players who were recently signed to minor league deals will get out of Spring Training and have another go of it in the Majors: Dan Johnson with the Toronto Blue Jays or Jason Bartlett with the Minnesota Twins?
As it stands now Johnson’s claim to fame came during Game 162 of the 2011 regular season when he hit the game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against the New York Yankees to keep hope alive for the postseason with the Rays.
Other than that, he’s a career .236 hitter with two decent full seasons with the Athletics back in 2005 and 2007 under his belt and hasn’t played a full season since 2009 with the Yokahoma Bay Stars in Japan. Bartlett on the other hand had some solid years with the Twins and the Rays, but never really got his footing with the San Diego Padres.
In nine seasons he has hit .271, made the AL All-Star team in 2009 and even finished in the top-20 for the AL MVP in 2008, the only year the Rays have played in the World Series. Bartlett has the advantage as he is a former pupil of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire from 2004-2007 and would make for a decent addition if he can get back to form.