UTK Special 1/11/24

The Slow Boil

The pitching market has been especially slow. I’m hesitant to write this, starting on Wednesday afternoon, hopefully cursing myself to have to redo this with some sort of signing. While there’s rumors that the Cubs will get Shota Imanaga done before the Thursday afternoon deadline, we’ve yet to see a market develop for Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Josh Hader, or Marcus Stroman, nor any of the secondary, relatively cheaper options.

In a market where Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson went early, largely because of familiarity with the Cardinals and the area, I asked around the league as to why things were moving so slowly. The overarching answer comes back to Diamond Sports and the worry many teams have about their budget. With MLB passing on Amazon’s offer to pick up their deal, contingent on signing a longer rights deal, there’s still no certainty as to whether the TV money is coming. Until then, teams like the Mariners, Guardians, Brewers, and Rays don’t know the final budget. The Cards are in that group, but their deals were all short term, aside from Sonny Gray.

For Snell, this is bad luck. Normally, a Cy Young winner, even with some known issues, would be signed quickly outside of some serious collusion. Instead, it’s mostly the teams worried about their budgets that were expected to be the lead bidders. The Mariners are off-loading payroll, even down to the still-rehabbing Robbie Ray, rather than signing a pitcher that would have fit well in a rotation with Ray. There’s still a need in Seattle, but perhaps not the means.