Snake Bytes, 12/9: Winter meetings under way

Team news

[Pinstripe Alley] Should the Yankees trade for Robbie Ray? - With only one year of control and a massive weak spot in his game, Ray will come cheaper than most of the other pitchers available on the trade front. BaseballTradeValues.com is certainly not perfect, but its valuation pegs Ray at worth about $18mm, meaning a one-for-one trade for a player like Miguel Andujar would be an overpay for a Yankee team that has multiple options for solving their rotation questions. I’m not someone that’s a buyer on Ray. You’re asking a lot of a guy to adjust to a new league, while simultaneously trying to go from the worst walk rate in baseball to average. I can see why the Yankees would like him, though.

[Ballpark Digest] New Visalia Rawhide Ownership on Tap - New ownership for the Visalia Rawhide (High A; California League) is on tap, as First Pitch Entertainment, LLC is set to purchase the team from longtime ownership group Top of the Third, Inc. “During our extensive search for the perfect team, we fell in love with the Visalia community & the rich history of the ballclub,” said Sam Sigal. “As we attended games, we felt like we became part of the Rawhide Family & knew this was the team for us. We are thrilled to inherit such an established organization & its community values. We look forward to our family becoming a part of the fabric of the community and extending the tradition of professional baseball in Visalia for years to come.”

[Forbes] As Winter Meetings Begin, Revisiting The Time When Max Scherzer Was Traded - When the deal is reflected on a decade after the fact, the Tigers were the big winners for getting Scherzer and turning Austin Jackson into a season with Price in their rotation. The Yankees made out decently with three healthy seasons from Granderson and Arizona did not do badly with Kennedy and turning Jackson into Hudson. And since this deal was fairly successful for the teams involved, five years later the teams pulled off a smaller but equally productive deal with Arizona sending Didi Gregorius to New York, the Yankees sending Shane Greene to Detroit and the Tigers sending Robbie Ray to Arizona.

[The Athletic] The Diamondbacks’ case for trading Robbie Ray, and their case for keeping him (for now) - It would be surprising if Ray passed up his chance at a long-term payday and accepted the one-year deal. That would guarantee the Diamondbacks draft-pick compensation for losing Ray. The lefty’s age could make him a candidate for a lengthy deal, which would give him a good chance to pass $50 million guaranteed. If Ray reaches that threshold, the Diamondbacks, as a revenue-sharing recipient, would receive the highest draft compensation possible: a pick immediately after the first round. Otherwise, they’d receive a pick after the second round. Both are valuable. The worth of those picks is the bar the Diamondbacks surely want to clear when it comes to a Ray trade.

And, elsewhere...

[Nike News] Nike x Major League Baseball Uniforms 2020 Official Images - “We’re excited to kick off our partnership with Major League Baseball with the unveil of next season’s uniforms,” says Hal Melhart, Sr. Product Line Manager for Nike Diamond. “Each franchise has a deeply personal history, with a visual identity that continues in this update. In the future, we look forward to preserving this integrity while still bringing more of Nike’s creativity to uniform designs, as we build energy around the game for its players and its fans.”

[Market Realist] Amazon Scores Streaming Rights for Major League Baseball - From 2020, Amazon Prime will stream New York Yankees games in the US. The Amazon-Yankees agreement is the first news about a broadcasting agreement after MLB amended its media rights terms and conditions with its franchisee clubs. Forbes reports the 30 MLB clubs are free to negotiate individual deals with media broadcast partners of their choice. The decision came after a drop in MLB ratings. Sports Media reported in November that MLB ratings have fallen 17% year-over-year in 2019. On the other hand, over-the-top streaming services are gaining in popularity/

[USA Today] MLB winter meetings: GMs on the hot seat facing the pressure - They are baseball’s endangered species, all under one roof in Southern California, knowing that by next year’s annual winter meetings in Dallas, there may be a whole lot of missing faces. Last year, managers were the ones on the hot seat, and there wound up being eight vacancies after the 2019 season. This time, it may be the general managers’ turn. There are as many as nine GMs whose jobs are in jeopardy, from San Diego to Toronto, young and old, large and small-markets, and those with expiring contracts expiring after 2020 to others with multi-years left on their deals.