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Mark Trumbo is still a free agent for some reason
Friday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes teams afraid to help themselves, trial and file teams, and lessons from an old trade.
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
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Mark Trumbo hit 47 homers in 2016. That total led both leagues. It’s Jan. 13, about a month out from spring training, and Trumbo remains a free agent even though he’s apparently making some pretty reasonable demands for his contract. Ken Rosenthal reports that Trumbo is looking for between $40-50 million total over a three-year span, which seems like some best of both worlds stuff: he’s not looking to be signed into his late-30s, or for $80-100 million over five years. Trumbo is essentially looking for a high average annual value during the remaining peak years he has, and for some reason, no one is biting.
Now, this isn’t to say everyone should be going after Trumbo because he’s absolutely going to be as good as he just was — just a year ago, he was just one half of a deal that brought the Mariners a backup catcher. However, we know he has power, and that when he’s in a stadium that boosts homers, he’s not a bad guy to have on your side. Camden Yards was one such place, and they’re going to miss him if he’s gone. The Rockies still have Ian Desmond at first base, and really should trade an outfielder to move Desmond out there and then sign Trumbo to hit, in scientific terms, all of the dingers. The Rangers are also interested, but they’re focused on a Mike Napoli reunion. Won’t someone take advantage of a pretty reasonable Trumbo demand and all the homers it could bring you?
Trumbo is a terrible outfielder, but might not be a bad first baseman at all. The Orioles have Chris Davis at first, sure, but he can also play outfield, and they currently have Trey Mancini slotted in as their DH. Mancini might be good, but he’s also 25 and didn’t tear up Triple-A a year ago, so he’s no excuse to avoid Trumbo. The Rangers have finally let Mitch Moreland go, and if you’ve got room for Napoli at this stage of his career, then there is room for Trumbo. And the Rockies, come on guys, you can’t play Ian Desmond at first what is wrong with you the answer is a phone call away. Just somebody sign him, and then we can move on to complaining about NL home run leader Chris Carter still being available.
- By our count, the Mariners have made roughly 500 trades this winter. Are they any better, though?
- The Mets are reassessing the outfield market for trade purposes, thanks to how slow free agency has been.
- The Braves will honor Hank Aaron with a statue at their new stadium.
- It’s arbitration time, so once again we wonder if the Nationals and Bryce Harper will talk extension, or just his salary for the upcoming year.
- Some teams just go "trial and file" with their arb-eligible players, meaning that if the two sides don’t match up, they just go to an arbitration hearing instead of negotiating. The Mets and the Orioles are two such teams reportedly going this route this winter.
- With Hall of Fame results revealed next week, Red Reporter is wondering what a Cooperstown path for Joey Votto looks like.
- The (now Los Angeles) Chargers unveiled a logo the internet made fun of (which was then revealed to be for marketing purposes, but likely only because everyone hated it so much). Even other sports teams were ripping it, including a couple of minor league clubs.
- Five years later, the Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero swap is still giving lessons.
- The trade of Jarrod Dyson for Nate Karns was basically the only sign of life from Dayton Moore for a month.
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