ARBITRATION MOVES
*All the following deals are for one year.
Andrew Cashner agreed to a $7.15 million deal with the Padres. When a guy goes 6-16 people panic. Don’t. He still has a big time arm, gets plenty of grounders (50 percent for his career), and the K/9 rate gained more than a full batter last year at 8.04. Worth taking a shot on given that the cost will be suppressed.
Jarrod Dyson agreed to a $1.725 million deal with the Royals. The guys has never had 300 at-bats in a season. That’s never stopped him from running. Over the last four seasons he’s never failed to hit 26 steals, and in 3-of-4 seasons he’s swiped at least 30 bags.
Avisail Garcia agreed to a $2.1 million deal with the White Sox. He’s yet to even remotely approach his perceived value, but the Sox aren’t ready to give up on him yet. He’s not even 25 yet and is coming off a season of .257-13-59-66-7 over 601 plate appearances. Still tons of talent, but time is running short to transition his talent into upper level production.
Jeremy Hellickson agreed to a $7 million deal with the Phillies. That’s a raise of more than $2.7 million from last season even though he posted an ERA of 4.62. He’s made 40 starts the last two seasons going 10-17 with an ERA of nearly 4.60. His baseline skills suggest… well, what you see is what you get. It’s not pretty.
Jordy Mercer agreed to a $2.075 million deal with the Pirates. He’s a strong defender but he’s only worth a look in NL-only leagues given that he’s hit 24 homers and stolen 10 bases over four seasons. Also that .257/.308/.378 slash line struggles to even show him to be a league average offensive performer.
Logan Morrison agreed to a $4.2 million deal with the Rays. He appeared in 100 games last season for the second time, 146 games total, but unfortunately health didn’t lead to better performance as LoMo produced a sickly .225/.302/.383 slash line. He’s simply never lived up to the hype.
Brandon Moss agreed to an $8.25 million deal with the Cardinals. Wow. The 32 year old slugger has hit .230 the last two seasons and last year he hit 19 homers with 58 RBIs and 47 runs scored. People complain about Mark Trumbo getting over $9 million on his deal, but I would gladly pay Trumbo a million more than Moss if I owned a team.
Anthony Rendon agreed to a $2.8 million deal with the Nationals. A near 20/20 talent two years ago, he appeared in just 80 games last season in a horribly disappointing campaign. Still posted a .344 OBP, just off the .351 mark of ’14, but his overall game included five homers and one steal. Will he run this year even if healthy? He had better since he isn’t likely to see his power grow significantly. Still qualifies at second and third base.
Will Smith signed a $1.475 million deal with the Brewers. The 26 year old has been at 12 strikeouts per nine since he moved to the bullpen in 2013. He walks too many, but a 12.93 K/9 mark and a 45.8 GB-rate, like he had last season, is elite level stuff.
Skeletor...
Here’s a link to some other contractual moves by players.
Here’s the link to the Free Agent Signings from the offseason.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).