The first month of 2021 is gone. According to the schedule, pitchers and catchers will have reported in mid February and players will have reported in less than three weeks. And at the end of February, we shall be able to watch spring training games. However, there are several players who are still available on the market.
We have seen that several free agents already signed a new contract recently. Nonetheless, 2020 NL Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer is still a free agent. Where is Trevor Bauer going? Is he going to sign a deal that is bigger than Gerrit Cole’s contract? Trevor Bauer tossed 73 innings last season and he’s surely the most dominant pitcher since batters only batted .159 against him. When will Trevor Bauer sign? Let’s keep watching.
Felix Hernandez won the 2010 AL Cy Young award and back then he was only 24. He did have a pretty good spring last year, posting a 1.98 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP with the Braves. But, he decided to opt out of the 2020 season. King Felix has already won 169 wins and thrown more than 2500 strikeouts in his career. Nevertheless, he never pitched in the postseason. Felix Hernandez will turn 35 in April. He will probably look forward to joining a playoff contender.
Jake Arrieta is the other former Cy Young winner who is still available. The 2015 NL Cy Young winner threw 64 games for the Phillies from 2018 to 2020. In these 3 seasons, he earned 22 wins while taking 23 losses. His ERA was 4.36 and he had a 1.39 WHIP. These numbers did not fit the Phillies’ expectations. Before signing with the Phillies, Arrieta played for the Cubs from 2013 to 2017. In these 5 seasons, he threw 128 games, posting a 2.73 ERA and his WHIP was 1.03. Arrieta will turn 35 in March and a short-term deal could be possible for him.
Additionally, the 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun is also available. Well, many people would say that the 2011 NL MVP belongs to Matt Kemp since Braun admitted that he used PEDs during the 2011 season. Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp are both free agents at this moment. Braun was batting .233/.281/.488 last year and he had 8 home runs and 26 RBI. Braun is already 37 and the Brewers are waiting to see whether he would like to come back. Matt Kemp played for the Rockies in 2020 and he was hitting .239/.326/.419 with 6 homers.
Meanwhile, there are still many award winners who still haven’t inked a deal. 9-time Gold Glove winner Yadier Molina is still a free agent, is he going to return to the Cardinals, a team that he has played for 17 years? When it comes to Gold Glove winners, we cannot ignore Jackie Bradley Jr., who made so many impressive plays in the center field and was the 2018 ALCS MVP. He’ll surely upgrade a team’s defense. Also, he was hitting .283/.364/.450 last season. Last but not least, two great designated hitters Marcell Ozuna and Nelson Cruz are also available. Ozuna blasted 18 homers last season and Nelson Cruz had 16 homers. Nelson Cruz is already 40, but Marcell Ozuna just turned 30 last November and he actually won the 2017 NL Gold Glove award when he played for the Marlins. If nothing changes in schedule, the 2021 spring training is coming soon, are we going to see these free agents agree to a deal before the spring training?
No comments:
Post a Comment