While Chip Puckett’s 6-season $103M deal with Twin Cities took the air out of the room, there’s reason to think three other recent signings will have as much or more impact on their teams.
“He’s the one player the Gamblers just couldn’t afford to lose,” said Baseball Journal’s freelance beat specialist Gayle Combs. “Talents like that just don’t flop out of trees, so if (GM) Joshua Biddle hadn't opened up a security vault of cash for him, I think fans would have folded big-time.”
The Gamblers struggles last season, and admittedly part of it might be that Rivera’s numbers fell from 8 WAR down to 6.5 WAR, but seriously, anyone pointing a finger at the guy is just flat-out jealous. Rivera literally has it all now.
Everything said about Rivera’s roles for Atlantic City could be said about Vega and Brooklyn, except Vega is a year younger and is still looking for that first Sawyer Silk Award. “As go Vega and Slizz goes Brooklyn,” Combs added.
With Slizz early in his arbitration cycle, one expects GM Ben Heuring will be cautious about tossing that kind of change around too early, but facts are facts, and the fact is that the pair of Vega and Slizz are, as Combs said, what makes the club go. Next season (2046) might see a lot of turnover on the Robin’s roster, so we’ll not hold our breath for further moves. For the near future, though Robins fans will have fun coming to the park were they know they’ll be seeing Felipe Vega play.
Regardless, it's great to see the Atlantic division keeping its young stars at home.
At 26 years old and carting around an easy fastball that registers 101 on the gun against a head-wind, Moelling seems to have come into his own the past two years. He sparkled in the last half of the season as Chicago made a run that eventually saw them cash post-season revenue checks.
“Chicago does it’s damage with its pitching staff, and Moelling is exhibit A,” Combs said.
Are Signings an Indicator of More to Come?
While a lot of the league’s attention will rightfully be focused on this coming Winter Meetings, and chatter will be focused on trades and big signing s of Free Agents, some pundits are watching these kinds of signing with more fervency than others. Combs said she can understand why.
“Over the past few years, the BBA has become a young player’s league, so it’s getting up to the time when teams are needing to decide which of these guys going to be the anchors they build around, and which aren’t. As a result, these guys are finally getting paid what they deserve.”
Don’t be surprised to see the impacts of these signings for years to come.
