Standout left-handed starting pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, slugging center fielder-first baseman Cody Bellinger, and slick third baseman Matt Chapman are proven big-league talents who ordinarily would be in spring-training camps in either Arizona or Florida right now.
They’re not. And there’s really no telling when they might be.
The four are the biggest-name free agents remaining on Major League Baseball’s open market. They are also all represented by the sport’s most renowned player agent, Newport Beach, California-based Scott Boras, who is famous for an unsurpassed patient approach and a well-earned reputation for getting his clients huge contracts.
Indications emanating from spring training lately have not been promising regarding potential agreements coming any time soon.
“Anybody who’s a free agent, we’ve theoretically had 3½ months to figure out a deal and if it hasn’t happened yet, at some point organizationally, you just need to turn the page and focus on the players you have,” San Francisco Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters Feb. 18 at the club’s spring facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Giants are among multiple teams that have been linked to some of the remaining free agents, particularly Chapman and Snell. A defensive wizard whose bat might not be quite what it once was, Chapman formerly played for new San Franciso Manager Bob Melvin with the Oakland Athletics. Mr. Melvin has also managed Snell, including with the San Diego Padres last season, when he won the Cy Young Award as the National League’s top pitcher.
Perhaps Mr. Zaidi’s comments, which included the notion that adding players in the early days of spring training would be “disruptive,” marked a negotiating tactic meant specifically for Mr. Boras’ ears.
“These are extremely talented players that impact winning outcomes,” Mr. Boras told California Insider via text message Feb. 21. “If owners value winning as their primary goal for their cities and fans, they’ll continue to make every effort to acquire elite talents.”
The Giants aren’t the only team, or even the only California-based club, that could use Snell, who also won the American League’s Cy Young Award while with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018.
Unlike San Francisco, which has been active in the free-agent marketplace, signing highly regarded South Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, powerful designated hitter Jorge Soler, hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks, and depth catcher Tom Murphy, the Los Angeles Angels have done relatively little since losing two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angeles Dodgers via free agency earlier in the offseason.
Angels center fielder Mike Trout, an 11-time all-star who has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons and is in the midst of a 12-year, $426 million contract, told reporters in Tempe, Arizona that he has been “pushing” the team’s owner, Arte Moreno, club President John Carpino, and General Manager Perry Minasian to dip into the market of remaining free agents to try to turn around a franchise that has endured eight consecutive losing seasons.
“I’m in Perry’s ear. I’m in the front office’s ear every day,” Trout said Feb. 19. “There are a few guys out there that I’ve talked to that want to be here ... great players and great people. It would be foolish to say I don’t want them to come here.”
Across the country, meanwhile, all-star third baseman Rafael Devers sent a similar message to Boston Red Sox executives while speaking through an interpreter to reporters in Fort Myers, Florida.
“They need to make an adjustment to help us players be in a better position to win,” Devers said Feb. 20. “We want to win. I’m not saying the team is not OK right now, but they need to be conscious of the [weaknesses] and what we need.”
Boston, which finished in last place in the American League East last season, is paying Devers handsomely, to the tune of $313.5 million over 10 years. Other than their Jan. 3 signing of journeyman right-hander Lucas Giolito, who pitched briefly for the Angels last season, the Red Sox have been quiet on the free-agent market.
The team’s longtime rival, the New York Yankees, could also use a boost in their starting-pitching rotation. Despite the massive addition of superstar outfielder Juan Soto in a December trade with San Diego, New York shouldn’t be finished shopping, according to slugger Aaron Judge.
“That’s what’s amazing about being here with the Yankees,” Judge told reporters Feb. 20 at the club’s spring base in Tampa, Florida. “They’re always trying to improve. They’re always trying to make moves, be it a trade or free agency. I definitely feel like there might be another move on the way, but you never know.”
In a perfect world, the Padres and defending World Series champion Texas Rangers would no doubt retain Snell and Montgomery, respectively. San Diego, though, is evidently in cost-cutting mode and has shown no signs of aggressively pursuing a new deal for Snell, while Texas General Manager Chris Young has described his team’s offseason as being “complete.”
Similar stalemates apparently exist for the Chicago Cubs with Bellinger, a former National League most valuable player with the Dodgers who enjoyed a renaissance last season at Wrigley Field, and the Toronto Blue Jays with Chapman.
While the situation involving any of the four players could obviously change with a single telephone call, for now at least, all remain unemployed as the 30 major-league teams begin spring-training games in the coming days.
“It’s simple math,” baseball analyst Ken Rosenthal said Feb. 20 on the Foul Territory streaming show. “Boras has one valuation for his clients. The teams have another. If the valuations had met, they would be signed, one or more of them. So, I don’t know where this ends. Bellinger and Snell and Chapman and Montgomery, they’re all going to play this year. The question is where ... and how much are they going to play for. Who is going to blink?”
