A Look at the "Mega-Class" of 2018-2019 FAs

RiDLer80

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From Yahoo!

A look at what all 30 teams can do with MLB's free agent mega-class of 2018-19

Over the next 18 months, as two trade deadlines and one offseason pass, all 30 teams in baseball will have one eye trained squarely on Las Vegas. The city’s reputation as chaos agent certainly won’t abate on account of baseball holding its most anticipated Winter Meetings ever there. What happens in Vegas will reverberate for the next decade.

For those who have yet to hear about the free-agent class of 2018-19, here’s a sampling: Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Donaldson, Daniel Murphy, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Blackmon, Andrew Miller, Zach Britton, Craig Kimbrel. There are dozens more. Teams will guarantee $3 billion to players that winter. The number could exceed $4 billion.

Question is, who’s going to do that spending?

With the help of Baseball Prospectus’ indispensible Cot’s Baseball Contracts, Yahoo! Sports analyzed the future payrolls of all 30 teams in hopes of offering some context to handicap that offseason. Over the next year and a half, of course, there will be trades, free-agent signings and contract extensions that change some teams’ calculus. A number of teams, though, are positioning themselves to take advantage not just of the frontline players of 2018-19 but ones that may slip through the cracks amid feverish bidding for the top-end talent.

Five best positioned

Chicago White Sox: Speaking of good shape, the White Sox might have the best farm system in baseball right now – hello, Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Robert, Alec Hansen, Reynaldo Lopez, Lucas Giolito, Zack Collins, Dane Dunning and Zack Burdi – and have plenty of money to spend. If they hold on to Jose Quintana, their guaranteed money for 2019 is $16.55 million. Should they deal him and bolster their prospect hoard that much more, they’ve got $6.05 million on the books. Never have the White Sox been what one would call big spenders – their middle-of-the-pack $132 million payroll last year set a team record – but the opportunity to complement that array of young talent with free-agent production feels just about perfectly timed.

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I know the 2018 season is a little ahead of schedule to expect most of our prospects to show a lot in the majors, but it'd be nice if they did so we'd be a more enticing destination for that free agency class.
 

brett05

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SO looking at the ones mentioned, who would we want?

Harper - Pass, going to run nearly $40 million per.
Kershaw - As awesome as he is, we don't need pitching even though he'd be the best pitcher on the staff.
Josh Donaldson - He'll be what, 33-34? I don't want us paying for a guy at that age to play 3b for us for a season or two befor ebeing relegated to 1b/DH with a declining skill set
Daniel Murphy - No place for him
Dallas Keuchel - See Kershaw
Charlie Blackmon - 32-33 years of age and is an average player outside of Coors. Pass
Andrew Miller - Nice, but again pitching isn't our issue
Britton, Kimbrel - See Miller

That leaves one guy. And that one guy is the one that the White Sox should pursue and likely will be the most in demand free agent maybe of all time. Manny Machado. Pay the man. Give him $25 million for 8 years. And honestly that might not be enough, but it should get a serious conversation started.
 

Raskolnikov

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Yeah....we don't eat dead years right? so we won't get the guys that would open a serious championship window

1. Blackmon CF
2. Moncada 2B
3. Abreu 1B
4. Donaldson 3B
5. Robert LF
6. Garcia RF
7. Anderson SS
8. DH
9. C
 

brett05

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Yeah....we don't eat dead years right? so we won't get the guys that would open a serious championship window

1. Blackmon CF
2. Moncada 2B
3. Abreu 1B
4. Donaldson 3B
5. Robert LF
6. Garcia RF
7. Anderson SS
8. DH
9. C
that will scare me if that is our team. The rebuild will be a failure.
 

The Hawk

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that will scare me if that is our team. The rebuild will be a failure.

Sanchez thus far is making a nice case for himself as a second baseman. Down the road, also I could see the Sox moving Moncada to 3rd base. They will need two left handed hitting players in the line-up at the minimum optimally about three. I'd say that with their pitching depth a couple of trades would be in order.
 

brett05

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Sanchez thus far is making a nice case for himself as a second baseman. Down the road, also I could see the Sox moving Moncada to 3rd base. They will need two left handed hitting players in the line-up at the minimum optimally about three. I'd say that with their pitching depth a couple of trades would be in order.

They don't need any LH hitters. They need hitters that can hit RH pitching.

I agree with Sanchez. Not sure if he sticks at 2b or becomes a Ben Zobrist type
 

RiDLer80

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that will scare me if that is our team. The rebuild will be a failure.

You may not like that lineup, but what about our pitching staff? Should have a good starting rotation and bullpen still.

Pitching wins you games in the playoffs.
 

brett05

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You may not like that lineup, but what about our pitching staff? Should have a good starting rotation and bullpen still.

Pitching wins you games in the playoffs.

Pitching should be great. It's what we do pretty darn well. I might even say it's something we do better than anyone else. And then I might even chug harder on the kool-aid and say it something we do better than any team in baseball does anything.
 

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