Everyone loves a bargain. That's true most days, but it's the invigorating spirit of this special day. (Heck, half the people who read this on its original publication date probably clicked over from an online shopping tab.) We address this reality every year by marking today, the highest day of all for accountants, use to highlight a handful of Major League Baseball free agents who could become bargains.
What do we mean by that? Typically, this is a shorthand term intended to imply that these players are receiving smaller contracts than their future performance warrants. Sometimes that's because a player is coming back from injury or trying to recover from a bad year. Sometimes it's because the player has certain skills that can only lead to better production in the right situation or organization.
Whatever inspires us to include a player in this piece, the only rule we have is that we don't list anyone listed in our post Top 50 free agents; If they are good enough for this designation, we consider it a scam to include them in such an article.
We've been doing this column for eight years now. we continued Jacob Stallings as a potential bargain (he posted 1.8 wins above replacement for a cool $2 million). In the past we have also had people like Carlos Estévez, Pierce Johnson, Anthony DeSclafaniAnd Jordan Lylesamong other things. Who might join this group in the future? Let's highlight five possible candidates.
No trope gets more success in these types of articles than the reliever with better content than results. (Just wait.) Sims is coming off a Jekyll and Hyde season in which he performed well Redness (a 124 ERA+ in 35 innings) before cratering (68 ERA+ in 14 innings) after a trade to Red Sox. (We assume he's fine with crimson, but that he draws the line at clothing items.) All along, he's had an arsenal that includes three above-average pitches in his fastball, slider and cutter. Sims could do with taking more shots, but he has shown the ability to be a solid midfielder even with subpar command. His stuff gives him a chance to do it again.
Many years ago the writer Rany Jazayerli formulated a kind of “law”. in Baseball Prospectus It states that any backup catcher could hit .300 in a season if given enough chances. The point was that strange things can happen in small samples, like undeniably weak offensive players having good offensive campaigns. Kelly, who posted his best finish (96 OPS+) in years, will try to prove that he is not proof of the aforementioned phenomenon. We're not willing to vouch for Kelly's bat – he has a good feel for the zone despite lacking strength – but whichever team signs him will at least benefit from above-average defensive skills. And hey, if he signs on as a replacement, maybe he can prove that Jazayerli's Law strikes twice.
3. Michael Soroka, RHP
Soroka's production increased significantly after he was relegated to the bullpen, including a 39% strikeout rate that would have put him on par Mason Miller and Edwin Diaz. Soroka streamlined his arsenal, throwing more fours (which went faster because he worked in bursts) and sliders, as well as fewer sinkers and changeups. Apparently it worked. Will it continue? A team will figure it out—and may get a better return on their investment than expected.
4. Eloy Jiménez, DH
For his own safety and the safety of those around him, Jiménez should never be allowed to touch a field glove again. That makes him a right-handed DH coming off the worst season of his career… or exactly the kind of player unlikely to receive a warm embrace from modern front offices. Hence the inclusion of Jiménez: he will almost certainly be paid a pittance, making him a pure advantage player. However, he can still attack the ball (he was in the 90th percentile for both average exit velocity and strike rate), and now that he's bottomed out, he may be more inclined to try to change his swing plane – a move that would cause him to lift the ball and utilize his innate strength with greater frequency. If that happens, he would be more than worth a cheap one-year contract.
We tend to rate Bell lower than other prognosticators, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he didn't make our top 50 rankings. He's had consecutive league-average offensive seasons while being negative defensively at the cold corner. It's fair to write that this isn't a great profile. Still, we'll give Bell this much credit: He's one of the few free agents we didn't rank in the top 50 who ranked in the top 75 or so among qualified batters in performance against 1) 95-mile pitches per hour or more and 2) pitches classified as breaking balls. You must be able to achieve at least speed or spin to sustain; Bell can do both at decent clips, even if his overall performance isn't particularly inspiring. You can do it better, but you can also do it worse.
