257 replies to this topic

[jamesdean]

It's also less money they have to retool the lineup after losing Soto. As of now they have absolutely no one to be feared outside of Judge, and if he misses any significant time like he did in '23, the Yankees are cooked....or in this instance, fried.

 

Absolutely.  Soto and Judge were the heart of that line-up.  Look for Judge to be pitched around even more in 2025.  The dude just might walk 200 times if he plays a full season. 

[Mackus]

Jays traded for Andres Gimenez

Basically Mullins if Mullins was young played 2B and was signed for 5 years.

Curious to see what this took for Toronto. FG and BB-Ref absolutely love his defense and the hardware shows voters agree.

If his bat gets going again, he's a huge addition. If not, he's still a nice starter but questionable if that's worth the contract and whatever they gave up. Interesting.

[Mackus]

Absolutely. Soto and Judge were the heart of that line-up. Look for Judge to be pitched around even more in 2025. The dude just might walk 200 times if he plays a full season.

They'll add another bat, my guess is Alonso or Santander or Walker, and maybe two such guys. But none of those guys are anything close to Soto. Even adding three might not make up for the loss.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Fried reportedly to the Yankees (8yr/$218M). One less AL East suitor for Burnes.

Fried missed the start of 2024 due to elbow issues. The team and he decided not to go the reconstruction route, and here we are in the off-season and the Yankees give him a cool smooth quarter bil. What a stupid ass contract that is. He is a ticking time bomb and wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't make it out of ST.

 

But hey they just got 2 productive months out of 2 full seasons of Carlos Rodon, so I guess this is just their risk tolerance. They're paying him for their 2028 World Series run. What happens before that is irrelevant? 

[jamesdean]

They'll add another bat, my guess is Alonso or Santander or Walker, and maybe two such guys. But none of those guys are anything close to Soto. Even adding three might not make up for the loss.

Judge's RBI's and batting average will take a nosedive in 2025.  He'll be hitting a lot more solo homeruns. 

[Mackus]

Judge's RBI's and batting average will take a nosedive in 2025. He'll be hitting a lot more solo homeruns.

His AVG and RBI (even if prorated) also plummeted from '22 to '23, there is lots of volatility in baseball even among greats. He was still amazing in 2023, it just was not one of the few greatest seasons anyone has had since Bonds like '22 and '24 were.

[jamesdean]

His AVG and RBI (even if prorated) also plummeted from '22 to '23, there is lots of volatility in baseball even among greats. He was still amazing in 2023, it just was not one of the few greatest seasons anyone has had since Bonds like '22 and '24 were.

I think what makes Judge and Soto so unique and astonishing is how far removed they are from today's hitters.  It's like they came through a time machine from the steroid era and landed in 2024. 

[Mackus]

I think what makes Judge and Soto so unique and astonishing is how far removed they are from today's hitters. It's like they came through a time machine from the steroid era and landed in 2024.

Judge isn't all that different stylistically from other modern hitters, he's just way better. He strikes out a ton, but he also walks a ton and hits for average and of course legendary power.

Soto doesn't have nearly the power that Judge does or even another half dozen or so guys nor does he hit for the same elite average, but he's a unicorn in terms of hitting for power and drawing tons of walks while not striking out.

Insane to have those two guys back-to-back in a lineup, but even those two guys needed more support than they got. I guess they didn't, Yankees still scored a lot of runs, but could've been historically good with more guys helping.

[BaltBird 24]

Didn't Soto typically bat in front of Judge? I'm legitimately surprised teams didn't try to pitch around Judge more, considering the scariest hitter behind him was Austin Wells or Anthony Volpe.

133 BB is still a ridiculous number, but not even close to Bonds peak of 232.

[Mackus]

Didn't Soto typically bat in front of Judge? I'm legitimately surprised teams didn't try to pitch around Judge more, considering the scariest hitter behind him was Austin Wells or Anthony Volpe.

133 BB is still a ridiculous number, but not even close to Bonds peak of 232.

Harder to pitch around when there is already a runner on, which Soto was over 40% of the time.

And as crazy as Judge is, he's not even close to peak Bonds.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Yup you'll never see Bonds like domination again. 

[BaltBird 24]

Harder to pitch around when there is already a runner on, which Soto was over 40% of the time.

And as crazy as Judge is, he's not even close to peak Bonds.

Similar WARs, but yeah, Judge's 1.159 OPS is rather pedestrian compared to Bonds' 1.422, 1.381, and 1.379 OPS.

Getting on base more than 50% of the time is just absolutely ridiculous. Bonds did it 4 years in a row, including 61% of the time at the age of 39. Insane.

[BaltBird 24]

It's crazy the level of stink Bonds had on him at the end of his career. He was still one of the best hitters in the sport even at 42 years old and he attracted zero interest from any team?

[jamesdean]

Judge isn't all that different stylistically from other modern hitters, he's just way better. He strikes out a ton, but he also walks a ton and hits for average and of course legendary power.

Soto doesn't have nearly the power that Judge does or even another half dozen or so guys nor does he hit for the same elite average, but he's a unicorn in terms of hitting for power and drawing tons of walks while not striking out.

Insane to have those two guys back-to-back in a lineup, but even those two guys needed more support than they got. I guess they didn't, Yankees still scored a lot of runs, but could've been historically good with more guys helping.

Soto is such an arrogant prick but man, I would love to see him hitting in front of Gunnar every day.  

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Wonder if the Os consider cooking something up for a young pitcher. Say a Jared Jones. Would take a good bit

[Mackus]

Similar WARs, but yeah, Judge's 1.159 OPS is rather pedestrian compared to Bonds' 1.422, 1.381, and 1.379 OPS.

Getting on base more than 50% of the time is just absolutely ridiculous. Bonds did it 4 years in a row, including 61% of the time at the age of 39. Insane.

Judge being able to play a passable CF is amazing. I was shocked that it worked out for the Yankees as well as it did. Think that explains the WAR difference compared to just offensive output.

[jamesdean]

It's crazy the level of stink Bonds had on him at the end of his career. He was still one of the best hitters in the sport even at 42 years old and he attracted zero interest from any team?

Bonds was loaded with PED's for several years and that's unfortunately what he's going to be remembered for but before all of that started, he was a great player and would have been a first ballot HOF.  Even without steroids, he would have hit close to 600 homeruns. 

[makoman]

Eovaldi to Rangers for 3/75 per Passan. Kinda wanted him, oh well.

[Mackus]

Dammit. Burnes or Crochet or bust, I guess. Not sure I like any other alternatives. Sasaki, would do the trick.

[Mackus]

3/$75M is a big deal, that's top of what I would've considered for Eovaldi. But don't get a lot of opportunities to sign good pitchers to short-term deals.