10 MLB Players in Worst Spots as 2015 Winter Meetings Dust Settles
The 2015 MLB offseason has been a major bummer for Chris Davis and Yoenis Cespedes.
The winter meetings are fading into the background and those free-agent mashers are still hunting for that lucrative, and to this point, elusive, payday.
The big leaguers who crack the list that follows fall into two camps. The first are prominent free agents like Crush Davis and La Potencia, whose respective markets have been slow to materialize. Some of those free-agents are stuck unaccounted for because they're attached to draft pick compensation.
The second group are players whose names have been swirling around in the trade winds, but whose chances of actually getting moved look bleak. Some are playing on outsized contracts that don't match their on-field production. Others, have ended up here because they've dealt with issues in the clubhouse or away from the diamond entirely.
SS Ian Desmond
1 of 10
Suffice it to say that Ian Desmond's contract season was a bust. In 2015, the vet logged a .233 average and a .674 OPS for the Washington Nationals.
What's more, his next employer will have to surrender a draft pick because the 30-year-old rejected a qualifying offer from the Nats.
As a result, Desmond's name hasn't been getting much buzz on the free-agent front. The most recent chatter is that the right-handed hitter could be set for a positional switch.
"Intriguing twist on Ian Desmond's free agent search: Some teams are exploring the possibility of him playing the outfield," Jerry Crasnick of ESPN tweeted.
That's also a puzzling twist because as Crasnick noted, Desmond is the "most accomplished [free-agent] shortstop." Plus, if he ended up in the outfield—especially a corner—that .674 OPS would look even worse.
LF Justin Upton
2 of 10
Grant Brisbee of SB Nation summed up Justin Upton's offseason best, dubbing the 28-year-old the "forgotten slugger of free agency."
There are a couple of explanations why Upton has been forgotten by the market. The first is that like Ian Desmond, Upton is attached to draft-pick compensation after rejecting a qualifying offer from his old club. Also like Desmond, Upton stumbled through a less-than-stellar season with the San Diego Padres in 2015.
The right-handed hitter posted a .790 OPS and compiled his lowest home run output since 2012 (26). The odd part is that Upton was significantly worse on the road (.714 OPS) than at the cavernous Petco Park (.866 OPS).
That underwhelming season with the Pads appears to be the most significant reason behind the lack of buzz surrounding Upton to this point in the offseason.
The good news for the left fielder is that on the final day of the winter meetings Jim Bowden of ESPN and SiriusXM tweeted that the "Upton market picking up steam with [the Baltimore] Orioles, [San Francisco} Giants and [Los Angeles] Angels all involved.
CL Aroldis Chapman
3 of 10
Baseball is the least of Aroldis Chapman's worries right now.
The Los Angeles Dodgers scuttled a trade for the electric closer after Jeff Passan and Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports reported that Chapman had been involved in an alleged domestic incident in October. According to Passan and Brown, that incident has spurred an investigation from MLB under the league's new domestic violence policy.
Author Molly Knight offered a strong take on how an interested club like the Dodgers should proceed.
"If Aroldis Chapman was only reliever on earth I'd understand debate. But dude fired EIGHT shots in garage while gf hid in bush. Hard pass."
The Washington Nationals are one team that isn't taking a hard pass, but who are passing for now.
According to Marly Rivera of ESPN Deportes, the Nats recently had a "significant interest" in acquiring the lefty. However, general manager Mike Rizzo told the Associated Press, via ESPN.com, that the club's interest is on hold pending the outcome of Chapman's case.
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RF Matt Kemp
4 of 10
Apparently, the San Diego Padres want to dump Matt Kemp.
"Rival club says Padres have shopped Matt Kemp, asked about SS. May be reluctant to eat a lot of money. Unclear if they would attach [Tyson] Ross," Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported via Twitter.
The Pads' brain trust is going to have to be more accommodating than that if the team wants to succeed in jettisoning the right fielder.
After all, Kemp's .265 batting average, .443 slugging percentage and .755 OPS don't jump off the page. But his contract numbers certainly do. Over the next four seasons, San Diego owes the two-time All-Star a not-so-small fortune ($72 million).
Unless the Padres attach Kemp to a guy like Ross, the team would have to pay down that $72 million figure to make the veteran a compelling chip.
SP Ian Kennedy
5 of 10
Thanks to his decision to pass on the San Diego Padres' qualifying offer, Ian Kennedy is lugging around the burden of draft-pick compensation.
That could be a problem for the righty.
Last season, Kennedy posted an uninspiring 9-15 record and a 4.28 ERA in 30 starts for San Diego. The most encouraging part of his stat line was that he racked up plenty of punchouts, sporting a 9.3 strikeout-per-nine ratio.
But so far, there haven't been a lot of bites for 30-year-old, who profiles as a mid-rotation arm and who will cost his next squad a top pick.
The only team that has been directly linked to Kennedy is the Miami Marlins. Per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com, the starter is a "potential" rotation option for the Fish. The San Francisco Giants have also been mentioned in the same sentence as the right-hander, if not explicitly connected to the pitcher.
"[The] Giants have had multiple conversations with Boras group about all their pitchers. Ian Kennedy obviously much more familiar than [We-Yin] Chen," Andrew Baggarly of the Bay News Group tweeted.
That doesn't sound terribly promising. With the offseason rolling along, it looks like it's time for Kennedy to settle in for a long winter. Until the comparable starters who aren't attached to compensation come off the board, Kennedy is going to waiting around.
1B/DH Hanley Ramirez
6 of 10
The Boston Red Sox have a couple of metaphorical anchors on the roster in Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval.
“What are they going to do with those guys?” An American League GM remarked, per Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. “They have a nice team, but then you have the problems at the corners.”
Ramirez is a particularly weighty problem because he'll be 32 on opening Day, while Sandoval will be 29. Cafardo dug around at the winter meetings last week to see if there is any chance the Red Sox will be able to find a taker for Ramirez.
"When we asked around about whether the Red Sox could move Ramirez, not one person said yes," Cafardo wrote.
There are likely two key factors that lead to that unfortunate—at least for Boston—consensus.
A shoulder injury wrecked the miscast left fielder's first go-around at Fenway. After clubbing 10 homers in April, Ramirez went yard just nine times the rest of the way. Playing on a salary of $19.75 million, the Red Sox ended up paying him slightly more than a million dollars for each shot.
Over the next three seasons, Ramirez is owed a cool $66 million. And he has a $22 million vesting option for 2019.
SP James Shields
7 of 10
There's a chance that James Shields could be one and done with the San Diego Padres.
According to ESPN's Buster Olney, "[the] Padres are reported to be drawing significant trade interest on James Shields." As Olney added, that's a "strange" development, as the righty passed through waivers unclaimed over the summer.
There are three other reasons why Shields' reported popularity is a strange bit of news. The first relates to his subpar showing in 2015, when he reeled off a 3.91 ERA and was shelled for 33 long balls (the most in the bigs). The second relates to money. Shields is owed at least $65 million over the next three seasons and can opt out of the contract at the end of 2016.
The third relates to his demeanor in the clubhouse.
"Those looking into possible James Shields trade have heard his vaunted staff leadership skills disappeared about a month into last season," Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press reported via Twitter.
That's a lot of baggage for prospective suitors to sift through, as they contemplate whether to pull the trigger on a swap for Shields this winter.
RF Yasiel Puig
8 of 10
Yasiel Puig isn't exactly held in the highest esteem at Dodger Stadium.
"He is the worst person I've ever seen in this game," one ex-[Los] Dodger who believes Puig is beyond redemption said flatly, per Bleacher Report's Scott Miller. "Ever."
That scathing review of his character is far from the only problem Puig is dealing with. The enigmatic right fielder is also rebounding from an injury-riddled season in which he hit .255 with 11 jacks.
According to Miller, "the Dodgers say they never have seriously entertained trading" the 25-year-old. Eventually, the brass might just have to entertain that idea.
In addition to his problems with teammates and struggles on the diamond, Puig has found himself in the headlines for an issue that has cropped up away from the yard. As the result of a November incident at a Miami Bar, the commissioner's office is investigating Puig under the new domestic violence policy, per Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.
CF/LF Yoenis Cespedes
9 of 10
As Jerry Crasnick of ESPN detailed back in November, Yoenis Cespedes' agents handed out a book called "52 Reviews" to a group of teams at the beginning of the offseason. The book, which is about 100 pages and has a video player on the cover, includes praise from managers, players, execs and media members.
While it was a highly creative idea, there were those who were skeptical about just what kind of an impact the book would make.
"I don't think anybody is going to say, 'Wow, that was a really cool book—let me go lay out $150 million for Cespedes,'" said a National League personnel man, per Crasnick. "But the guy does have a pretty cool highlight reel."
To this juncture, that personnel man has been spot on. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports mentioned Cespedes as an outfielder that the Los Angeles Angels could be interested in, but otherwise there has been little to zero talk about the Cuban.
His most recent team—the New York Mets—don't appear to a realistic landing spot, even after Michael Cuddyer's unexpected retirement.
"Unless Cespedes' contract demands fall precipitously (extremely doubtful), the Mets have no intention of signing him or making any long-term commitments in this free-agent class," Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote.
For now, it's unclear just which teamdoes have that intention.
1B Chris Davis
10 of 10
No crab cakes for you.
Per Sarah Meehan of the Baltimore Sun, Jimmy's Famous Seafood recently offered free crab cakes for life to Chris Davis (and his kids and their kids) if he agreed to stay with the Baltimore Orioles. Right now, it doesn't look like there will be too many crab cakes in Davis' future.
Executive vice president Dan Duquette has pulled back the $150 million offer that the O's made to Davis, according to Dan Connolly of the Sun. And it's unclear how many other teams are in the mix for the slugger.
"Members of the Orioles front office privately believe that at this point they were the only ones in serious negotiations involving Davis," Connolly wrote.
It worth remembering that Davis' agent, Scott Boras, has a history of landing megadeals at the last minute from seemingly out of nowhere. But right now, the outlook appears dicey for Davis.
Note: All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com. All salary information courtesy of Cot's Baseball Contracts on BaseballProspectus.com.
If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.
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