IndianaTwin

Places I've seen list Correa at $37.333M this year, rather than $36M as is listed in the OP. But what's a little over a million between friends?

There's another option that I haven't seen anyone mention. There's a one-year spike in Correa's salary. That it comes in year 3 of a six-year deal suggests that they had some creative conversation to create an uneven pay flow*. He also wants to win. How about going Bobby Bonilla on him and working with Mr. Boras to create a mutually beneficial deferred compensation package that gives Correa the same value in today's dollars in exchange for taking just $25M of that money this year? Or something of that nature. *Or maybe Correa's Adjustable Rate Mortgage has a balloon payment coming due in 2025? Okay, probably not.

Yes. That figure is closer to what I was remembering than the $122M in the OP.

Lewis, Castro and Topa should be labeled as "arbitration." Miranda and Varland should be listed as "team control." The dollar figures are probably about right for each of them, however.

Actually, it was $5.25 million, further boosting your premise. 😀

They have a team option for $4 million, but the Rays are responsible for the buyout.

Just so we're clear... I'm rooting for wins by KC and Arizona.

Da Shawn

I’m holding out for a Ginsu knife.

Mediocre is that Cleveland lost five times to the White Sox. That's more than the Twins, Royals and Detroit combined. Do they even deserve to be in the playoffs, let alone get a first-round bye, if they lose that many to the worst team in modern baseball history? 😀

Thanks -- that was nice indeed.

I'm watching their postgame show. Bip Roberts actually began the show in tears as they started to reflect.

Link? 😃

I have not. I'll look on YouTube, but do you have a link?

Getting your wish.

Did any of y'all see coverage from the Oakland game on Wednesday? MLB Network had the game and the locals did some nice stuff in the pregame. MLB Network had some nice segments on the A's time in Oakland. I was a little disappointed that they didn't do more with the '72-'74 dynasty and did more with the Bash Brothers instead.

For the record, the Baltimore line score of 23111 is the ZIP code for Mechanicsville, Va., about 150 miles from Camden Yards.* *Also for the record, the Twins' 00000 is non-existent as a ZIP code, which seems fitting as a descriptor for their offense.,

Sorry, I've taken us drastically off the Game Thread. I won't make any more comments about next year's rotation.

The trick is figuring out which flyer is going to turn out like Lorenzen and which will turn out like Archer. 😀

Also didn't add that part, but I think the "aren't ready for the rigors of the show for an entire season" is also reason why they will prefer starting Matthews and Festa in St. Paul.

In the interest of brevity, I didn't add him as an option in my previous response. I'm kinda scared to go that route, but there were a couple guys who made the transition. They got off to decent starts, but I'm not sure how they held up. I don't like messing with success, but with the numbers he put up this year, it's also tempting to try getting more innings out of him.

My statement wasn't reflective of my "hope for," but a reflection of what I think is likelihood. As Western SD notes, they have money in Paddack (and it's hard to imagine another team taking on the contract). I don't know if the front office has made any actual statements on expected payroll, but folks seem to think it will be similar to this year. With the increase for Lopez and arbitration for others balancing the money coming off the books, it's hard to imagine taking on anything more than a Bundy-level flyer (if that). The other option is they can pull off an Arraez-for-Lopez-type trade, which was basically a salary wash before they extended Lopez. But I'm not sure who they have to trade that would draw interest. At one point, it seemed Castro might bring something, but with the way he tailed off, I doubt it. With all that, we're looking at people currently in the system. Additionally, they have shown an unwillingness to start with two complete youngsters in the Opening Day rotation, which is what they'd have if they don't use Paddack and have to go with two of SWR (99 ERA+), Matthews (73 ERA+ and falling), Festa (85) and others. On a second TJS: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/pitcher-results-after-2nd-tommy-john-surgery/. His summary statement is, "Overall, pitchers seem to return from their second Tommy John surgery and throw comparable to when they did before the operation." If you look at his game log, there are actually a bunch of good games and some real clunkers, which is also common in the first year following a TJS. He also has the advantage of being younger than the typical two-time TJS pitcher. The average age for them is 29 at the second surgery, whereas he will be 29 on Opening Day. I know there are folks who would like to see Paddack transition to the bullpen full-time. I wouldn't be opposed to that, but with the money they have in Paddack, I think they will keep him as a starter for as long as they can.

Concur. If they are able to start the season with Lopez-Ober-Ryan-Paddack-SWR, the experience Festa and Matthews have gotten as they head back to St. Paul could be invaluable.

Wasn't sure I was going to be able to join the Game Thread tonight. I got abducted by aliens. They made me eat my vegetables and clean up after myself. Apparently I was on the mothership.

I thought it was Near Mint on my baseball cards.