Last week we found plenty of topics to kick off the first week of the winter, winter being that time of the year when baseball is not played. This week threatens to be a quiet week on the baseball front but who knows? Award season doesn't start until next week so baseball news will have to be generated by the general managers.
The general managers meet next week in Milwaukee and that might get trading season going. But more likely those meetings will set the stage for the winter meetings in December.
The free agent season started last week with the expressions of interest stage. There is a deadline on November 23rd where teams have to offer arbitration to their free agents. For those at the top or bottom of the lists the deadline is meaningless but for those type A's in the middle of the wish-lists the deadline could impact their fate. If a team offers arbitration then the cost of signing them goes up, sometime prohibitively. If no offer is made then they are a true free agent.
The Jays have one type A, Kelly Johnson, and four type B's, Frank Francisco; Shawn Camp; Jon Rauch; and Jose Molina. The Jays will offer arb to Johnson; Francisco and Camp. The offers to Rauch and Molina are on the fence at the moment.
There was much discussion last week about free agents. ESPN's Jim Bowden, former GM himself, estimated how mcuh each fre agent would get. Here are the summary numbers:
Prince Fielder - 8 years, $24M average annual value (AAV)
Jose Reyes - 6 years, $18M AAV
Mark Buehrle - 4 years, $16M
CJ Wilson - 5 years, $15M
Jonathan Papelbon - 4 years, $13M
Jimmy Rollins - 3 years, $13M
David Ortiz - 2 years, $12.5M
Edwin Jackson - 3 years, $10M
Roy Oswalt - 1 year, $10M
Kelly Johnson - 2 years, $4M
Frank Francisco - 2 years, $3.75M
Last week the Jays brought back Edwin Encarnacion and Trystan Magnuson and said goodbye, for now, to Adam Loewen and Jesse Carlson.
So what's going on? Maybe this week we can finally leave the Napoli, Francisco trade in the past.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2011110619453215