We are less than two weeks away from spring training and 23 of our top 60 free agents remain unsigned, including one of the top seven. Here’s the hot stove noise on Super Bowl Sunday.
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Mets ink Almora Jr.
The New York Mets have a deal with free agent Albert Almora Jr., by Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic.
Almora, 27, arrives mid-April, was available after not being offered by the Chicago Cubs earlier this winter. Over the past three seasons, he has hit .261 / .299 / .373 with 17 home runs and three stolen bases (on seven tries). Almora’s 76 OPS + during that team ranks 215th out of 222 players with at least 800 record appearances. Predictably, he is still considered a solid defensive midfielder.
Almora plans to see most of its action against left-handed yards. The Mets will currently start three left-handed fielders most days: Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto. Almora joins Jose Martinez and Guillermo Heredia as the other right-handed field options on the 40-player roster.
Mets remains interested in Bradley Jr.
The Mets may have signed Almora on Sunday, but that doesn’t necessarily take them out of the race for Jackie Bradley Jr. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe reported Sunday afternoon that the two parties ‘remain very engaged’.
Bradley Jr. enters the off-season offered by CBS Sports as the 12th best free agent available. Here is what we wrote at the time:
Bradley Jr. is not a freaky-deaky athlete in the vein of, say, Kevin Kiermaier or Ramon Laureano. What he is, though, is one of the best defensive centerfielders in the game. He shoots into space as if he were Mike Campbell, and he plays the position with admirable precision – to the extent that his routes look pre-programmed. Bradley Jr. is also not a zero. The Red Sox has enabled him to face more leftists over the past two years, and he scored good numbers against it in 2020. (His next team will likely plow him back to peloton status.) He is good for double-digit homers and an OPS .760 against right-handers. It will just play nice with his glove.
Bradley Jr. will likely take over as New York center most days, with one of Brandon Nimmo and Dominic Smith standing left while the other moves to the bench.
Of course, the Mets find a tough competition with Bradley Jr. – Mike Puma of the New York Post tweeted that half a dozen teams be involved in the process.
Red Sox makes progress with reliever
It is believed that the Red Sox are progressing towards an agreement with the Japanese enlightener Hirokazu Sawamura, by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.
Sawamura, 33, has turned up nearly 400 in the course of his career at Nippon Professional Baseball. In the outings, he collected a 2.82 ERA and a walk-and-go ratio of 2.95.
Ted Baarda of Baseball Info Solutions delivered a reconnaissance report from Sawamura in December:
Sawamura throws a straight mid-90s speed that is about 96 which he can locate well at the bottom of the zone. His primary secondary pitch is a low mid-nineties splitter, which drops but does not have a major interruption due to the speed at which he throws it. He does a great job of keeping the pitch in or below the zone, and hitters often swing over it when it falls out of the zone. Splitters are difficult places to recommend, which contributes to Sawamura’s high walking rates.
Sawamura will get a big league contract if the two parties can reach an agreement.
Reds add Strange-Gordon
The Reds have signed veteran striker Dee Strange-Gordon for a minor league contract, reports ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. In anticipation of other moves, Strange-Gordon will compete with Kyle Farmer and Kyle Holder for the Cincinnati shortstop.
Strange-Gordon (32) hit a weak .200 / .268 / .212 last season with three stolen bases in 82 record appearances with the Mariners. Seattle turned down its $ 14 million club option earlier this season. Strange-Gordon last had an average hit in 2017, when he stole an MLB leading 60 bases with the Marlins. He has not played regular short stops since 2013.
The Pirates made an interesting addition on Sunday by painting left-back Chasen Shreve in a minor deal, the team announced.
Shreve, 30, hit more than 12 batsmen per nine in 17 games with the Mets last season. He did so while showing improved speed (about a mile per hour higher than his 2019 average), and while generating more than 55 percent flux on his splitter.
A’s remain active on the bull market
On Saturday, A’s right-hander Mike Fiers and shortstop Elvis Andrus acquired in their first notable moves in the winter. However, the A’s cannot be done as general manager David Forst said Oakland remains interested in providing assistance.
It’s unclear who Forst has in mind, but there are a number of highlights that have been ranked in the top 60 of CBS Sports and remain unsigned:
The A’s lost Liam Hendriks to free agency earlier this winter.