Hub World

Free agency is full tilt, and can be a lot to keep up with (trust me, I know). Which is why I’m writing this out, so you don’t have to. Last time I rounded up the first few moves over here in Part 1. This time around, I’m going to blast through a majority of the signings and comment where I feel necessary.

With that said, here are some more of the moves:

• Andrew McCutchen: To the Brewers. While I haven’t seen any details on the deal just yet, I’m not sure I want to. As a Phillie fan, I’m really sad to see Cutch go. He felt like a great personality fit, and provided good value in the outfield. Just look at this. He’ll be missed.
• Niko Goodrum: 1 year, $2.1M to the Astros.
• Luke Maile: 1 year, $900K to the Guardians.
• Chadwick Tromp: 1 year, $720K to the Braves.
• Miguel Diaz: 1 year, $800K to the Tigers.
• Jordan Lyles: 1 year + option, $7M guaranteed to the Orioles. Lyles gave up a ton of hits, runs and bombs last year, which is exactly what the Orioles are looking for in a starter after a stupendous season. Maybe now they’ll make some noise. Respectfully.
• Jeurys Familia: 1 year, $6M to the Phillies. Finally, the Phillies are on the board. The Phils bullpen has been the cause of continuous mental anguish for myself and many others. Hopefully Familia reduces that. Keyword is hopefully.
• Alex Colome: To the Rockies. Another team notorious for their pitching needs. Colome is still a solid option, and the veteran had 17 saves for Minnesota last year. Good pickup for the Rox here.
• Matt Strahm: 1 year, $3M to the Red Sox. More help is better than less I suppose, but Strahm has only pitched in 27 innings in the last two seasons.
• Jesse Chavez: To the Cubs.
• Hanser Alberto: To the Dodgers.
• Ehire Adrianza: 1 year, to the Nats.
• Vince Velasquez: To the White Sox. Losing Rodon is a big blow, but good ol’ Vince is sure to fill that void for them.
• Adam Ottavino: 1 year, $4M to the Mets. The 36 year old vet played more of a closer role last year in Boston, and it looks like that’s what the Mets will have him do after the departure of Familia.
• Anibal Sanches: To the Nats. A return for the vet after 0 IP in 2021. Have to wonder if the 38 year old will start 20-30+ games again.
• Brad Boxberger: 1 year, $2.5M to the Brewers. A very solid reliever getting added to an already well equipped Brewers pen. Watch out for the Brew Crew.
• Nelson Cruz: 1 year to the Nats. Welcome back to the NL, Mr. Cruz! The power righty hasn’t been in the NL since his first 8 games in the Bigs back in ’05 with Milwaukee. The universal DH opens up a whole new world for the career DH, who will probably hit more homeruns than years he is old.
• Aaron Sanchez: to the Nats. It’s a party in Washington, apparently.
• Ian Kennedy: 1 year, $4.75M to the Diamondbacks. Adding LITERALLY ANYONE to this team is an improvement. Even 37 year old starters.
• Sean Doolittle: to the Nats. Still able to provide some value out on the back-end. The Nats made quite a few moves so far.

And we’ll call it a day there for now. I haven’t included many of the trades here, as you may have noticed. Want to save some of those for another post, where I’ll get a little more into them and share my thoughts. For now, enjoy this info-dump round up, until the next wave.

Credits once again to Jon and the boys.