MLB 2024-25 Hot Stove Thread

That’s been suggested. Judge and Jeter didn’t get a suite so Yanks wouldn’t budge on that for Soto. And Cohen said yes.

I’m not sure I believe that. Or at least that it was the deciding factor.

 

Well, money is always the deciding factor, but I can see Soto thinking the suite issue showed how much one team wanted him. Of course, it you're making $765 million, I'd think you could afford the price of a suite.

Whatever. Ain't my team or my money.

 

That is not what he was in Cleveland. He did not have slumps. Ever. He’d struggle for two days and then hit a laser to the opposite field gap. Until his final season when he got a loop in his swing. It makes him much more dangerous power-wise, but it means he is streaky. It was worth it for him contractually, but he will never be the player he was in 2015-2018 ever again, mostly because of age but also because he has chosen to not be that player.

I know what the WAR says, but he is five doubles, a few homers and 30 strikeouts and a few feet of range at shortstop a year worse than his prime, and that Gold Glove defense is never coming back. He’s great, but I don’t think he has the impact of Judge or even his former self. Obviously everyone else — and the math in terms of WAR — disagrees with me.

The Mets can win it all, but they can’t do what the Yankees did this fall, hoping those two guys drag them to the World Series the same way Judge and Soto and Stanton did. I don’t think Lindor is that guy anymore.

 

I would like to see what Burnes will/would have cost

 

Guardians just dumped Andres Gimenez on the Blue Jays.

 

Wait.
First of all, I’m not buying that Jeter didn’t get a suite.
Soto/Judge……meh……but I would be shocked and amazed if #2 didn’t get one.

 

I don't know how he looked in Cleveland but Lindor was pretty fucking great this year (after the first six weeks in which he was a total dud...all the localized MVP talk did a nice job of ignoring that). Looked terrific in the field and came up with big hit after big hit at the plate. The grand slam to basically finish off the Phillies in the NLDS was all but expected. Is he the type of true superstar you'd expect out of $341M? No. But he's adjusted to New York after a rough start and is a pretty good wingman for Soto.

And the Mets being unable to do what the Yankees did means they're closer to winning the World Series than the Yankees. They won more games against the Dodgers in October than the Yankees! And Lindor isn't as good as Judge, but Lindor/Vientos/Alonso or his replacement/Alvarez/Nimmo are an infinitely better secondary cast than the Yankees' non-existent supporting cast. Per WAR, the Yankees' best position player last season behind Judge & Soto was Anthony Volpe. Yeeeeesh. Plus, David Stearns built his rep rummaging through the cutout bin and finding gems in Milwaukee. Brian Cashman hasn't been able to do anything other than throw money at a problem in decades.

 

Well, fuckety-fuck-fuck.

 

He paid for one.

 

Go get Burnes, too. You’ll still save $$$ over what it would have taken to sign Soto.

 

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. That’s certainly not the Lindor I watched play about every game in 2024. MVP season in the non-Ohtani category. Best player on a team that went to the NLCS. And got hosed on All-Star and Gold Glove selections.

At 31, I think it’s reasonable to think Lindor has 3-5 more great seasons left, and he should be enhanced with Soto. And it was already a much deeper lineup that the Yankees had. Better than a 1-2 punch.

 

The worst thing about cancer is not that it appears. The worst thing about cancer is that it returns.