This offseason, I will be diving into the notable moves made and their impact to their individual teams and potential fantasy baseball implications.
Hold onto your cheesesteaks Philly fans… this one is going to hurt.
I posted a poll on twitter the other day asking who you thought would be the worst signing of the offseason (besides Harper and Machado) in terms of value vs dollars, contribution to the team, and ability to trade the contract later on. I had Corbin, Kimbrel, and Eovaldi as the favorites and then the ever popular “other”.
Well the Phillies decided to double down on their owner’s statement of getting “stupid” and get that out of the way early on by signing OF Andrew McCutchen to a 3 year deal worth a reported $50M. Now, I had what I thought was an aggressive 3/$42M prediction in my Presidente’s 2018-2019 MLB Offseason Free Agent Predictions.
I just mentioned to a friend the other day that one of Adam Jones, Cutch, Grandy, and/or Span could be looking at 1 year “CarGo” deals this offseason if they fuck around too long… well Cutch must’ve heard me and decided to not fuck around.
For reference, here is a blind test for you… 3 players signed recently in free agency with similar track records and their previous three seasons combined:
Player A (Age 32)
439 games, .278/.338/.493, 79 HR, 254 RBI, 7 SB/2 CS, 5.3 WAR
Player B (Age 32)
464 games, .263/.356/.446, 72 HR, 232 RBI, 31 SB/21 CS, 3.9 WAR
Player C (Age 30)
373 games, .273/.332/.434, 42 HR, 168 RBI, 19 SB/6 CS, 9.4 WAR
Now let’s get to the contracts and unveil the player…
Player A (Age 32)
Carlos Gonzalez – 1 year/$5M
Player B (Age 32)
Andrew McCutchen – 3 years/$50M
Player C (Age 30)
Josh Reddick – 4 years/$52M
I’m not saying Cutch is a bad player at all, but a declining player in a saturated market is a gross overpay in my opinion. Additionally, it was surprising because he was intent on playing CF and likely won’t in PHI barring a trade. I think Pollock and Brantley come in at lower AAVs and have a much greater upside, health permitting. This just has “Carlos Santana” all over it … a premature signing of a player you like before the market is established.
Grade – F
*Photo by Keith Allison
