Srraw and Plesac wouldn't interest me much but might be necessary to avoid giving up the best prospects although Pittsburgh is always rebuilding so may only want kids.

Aaron Judge is likely to get a 9 year deal. That will take him to age 40. With a couple additional homers every year, he'll be nearing 80 a season by then

On a humorous not having just watched Mike Hazen (D'Backs GM) interview on MLB Network.

First he mentioned having "cut his teeth" with John Hart, Shapiro and Antonetti's tree.

They asked him if he had actually gotten up and into the gym at 4:45 this morning. He replied, "I was proud to finally beat Chris Antonetti into the gym".

From MLB Trade Rumors site:

Christian Vazquez

The Guardians are certain to add a catcher this offseason. 

Austin Hedges hit free agency, leaving the unproven Bryan Lavastida and Bo Naylor as the only backstops on the 40-man roster. Naylor is a highly-regarded prospect, but turning everyday reps behind the dish over to a 23-year-old could be too risky for a team looking to defend their AL Central title.

The Guardians have been one of the more frequently mentioned suitors for A’s backstop Sean Murphy, who seems highly likely to be dealt.

Christian Vázquez isn’t that caliber of player, but he wouldn’t force the team to surrender any young talent to add him. A highly-regarded game-caller with consistently strong defensive metrics and a plus arm, Vázquez would be a sensible target for a Cleveland team that has prioritized catcher defense.

Sounds like a Cleveland type player; don't anything about him. I'll look up his stats.
They do sound willing to deal from their surplus of minor league talent. And would probably not object to getting a catcher who can hit. I imagine the biggest uncertainty is how soon they think Bo will be ready to lead a high quality pitching staff.

32 year old right hand hitter. His 2023 "projected stats" based on his history are:
315/399/714 9 homers

Caught 29% of base stealers in 2021. committed 8 errors. only 3 passed balls. I don't know where to find "pitch framing" metrics

civ ollilavad wrote:Sounds like a Cleveland type player; don't anything about him. I'll look up his stats.
They do sound willing to deal from their surplus of minor league talent. And would probably not object to getting a catcher who can hit. I imagine the biggest uncertainty is how soon they think Bo will be ready to lead a high quality pitching staff.

Yeah I think the sudden vault into "contender" status for Cleveland means Bo Naylor will not be the regular catcher. Stakes are now too high to hand to a rookie catcher.

Poor kid. Actually it could be great for his development to work as the backup to a solid major leaguer

You know whomever they get will be very good defensively and at game calling.

And teams always need 2 catchers for days off for the regular. Yep could be a very good thing for Bo.

This is catcher - not outfielder.

Seems like these baseball meetings are where agents make their money.

Big time FA deals but not much trading. GMs talking a lot to agents and not much to each other.

I guess if you can just buy players and not give up players, negotiations are just about money.

Usually the trades come leading up to the WM or within 7 days after. Unfortunately until free agents sign you have a hard time making decisions without knowing who is actually on your team.

The Guardians are known to make what they think are good offers to free agents and trades and then move very little.

Unfortunately their target Murphy does not need to be moved by the A's and is a very popular trade target for many teams.

We got one under contract, which is at least a start.
They are going to something about catcher but of course they could just re-sign Hedges which won't do anything about the offense.

They have expressed agreement with all of us that have plenty of tradable commodities and I'd think a package of Plesac [or Civale] and some pretty impressive minor leaguers could get them a Murphy or a Reynolds. Pirates are a great team to trade with: they have an ex-Clevealnd executive and they have a history of terrible deals, although mostly I guess from prior front offices.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that Christian Vázquez has an agreement in place with the Twins.

Vazquez is the last REAL catcher who is a FA. The rest are like Hedges in one way or another.

So either they trade for a Toronto catcher or something unknown is brewing.