Say hey, Baseball: James Shields expected to sign this week

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Don’t worry, everyone, our winter-long nightmare is nearly at its end: James Shields is going to sign a contract soon, and with any luck, we won’t have to hear about his free agency for at least another two or three years. Reportedly, Shields has multiple offers in hand and will choose one of them by the end of this week -- that’s good, and it’s progress for a pitcher who has mostly heard radio silence all winter. Of course, it’s not as simple as that for those of us waiting to see who he signs with: no one knows who the offers are from or how many there are or how much they are worth or which one Shields prefers.

Context clues should get us most of the way there, though. As Shields’ price dropped in both dollars and years, the Yankees -- who plan to contend but are using Chris Capuano as a fourth starter right now without a hint of irony -- became more intrigued and have even been in contact with Shields’ agent recently. The most significant Yankees pitching question right now is whether any of their arms can get to 200 innings: Sabathia is coming off injury and poor performances, Tanaka’s elbow cut his 2014 short, it took Michael Pineda four years to cross 200 career innings because of injuries, and neither of Capuano or Nathan Eovaldi are a lock to last for that long against AL lineups. Shields leads the majors in innings over the last four seasons and is 11th in ERA+ in that stretch: he’d solve a lot of problems, even if he does come with some aging and fly ball risks.

The Padres would be able to negate both of those issues thanks to pitcher-friendly Petco and a league that lacks the DH, and coincidentally enough, they’ve also contacted Shields’ agent recently. It’s also been reported that they’re working hard to get an actual frontline pitcher, and while much of the attention has been on Hamels, Shields would be cheaper in years, dollars, and prospect cost: the Padres would have to surrender their first-round pick in June’s draft, but would get to hang on to their remaining top prospects. The Padres could use Shields for the same reason the Yankees could: the last two spots in the rotation are currently filled by talented but unreliable pitchers like Brandon Morrow, Josh Johnson, Casey Kelly and Corey Luebke, all of whom could hit the disabled list before you finish reading this sentence. Throwing Shields in the mix would help the Padres both at the top and bottom of their rotation, and pitching in Petco would help Shields get back some of those lost strikeouts -- yes, Petco is so pitcher-friendly that it actually increases strikeouts because pitchers can take crazy chances and challenge hitters.

It might not be one of those teams, but they’re the best current guesses. Thankfully, we’ll know soon who it is, and how they’re going to pay, and just in time for spring training to start.