Yesterday brought some offseason excitement with the Q.O. deadline and the Cy Young voting. Sure, Josh Tomlin signed a $1.25 million deal in Atlanta and that was it. Yes, there is the daily hourly speculation on how the new Mets owner will spend his millions, and filling in their front office — but things are quiet on Nats transactions.
The next important milestone date on the calendar is December 2 when teams have to decide on tendering contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Most of the drama was over when the Nats cut Michael A. Taylor last month well ahead of the deadline. Taylor was actually offered a minor league assignment and rejected it to become a free agent.
Taylor was going to be the only tough decision for general manager Mike Rizzo in the arbitration process. Yes, we indicated last year that he should have been non-tendered making this year simple in my mind because Taylor would have been due nearly $4 million in salary. But in management’s mind, it is never simple. That is done now. The only drama left is whether Juan Soto and Wander Suero will qualify as Super-Two players and get four years of arbitration instead of the normal three years.
If Soto and Suero are determined to be Super-Two’s, they would join Trea Turner and Joe Ross in that process. The significance of Soto’s determination could equate to a $10 million swing in payroll.
This is also awards week and a real yawner for Nats fans. Not one player on the roster earned a vote in the Rookie of the Year or Cy Young voting. It is the first season that Max Scherzer won’t have any award rankings on his Nats resumé. Expect Soto and Turner in the Top-10 in the final vote tabulation.
So we sit and wait for the days ahead with just 49 days remaining in this calendar year of 2020. We will wait on the direction of this free agent market and see what trades will occur.
With nearly 200 remaining free agents, that is approximately seven per team. Are there enough spots on the 40-man rosters to absorb all of those players? The answer is ‘no’ there is not. The resulting decisions will cause some players to take minor league deals.
The Mets seem to have their name associated with every one of those top free agent players, and it is difficult to know what direction the other teams are taking.
We are just two years removed from Phillies owner John Middleton vowing to pay “stupid” money. How times have changed.
