MLB Rumors: 3 Suitors For Carlos Rodon
The 29-year-old should be able to match the 5-year, $100M+ deals that Robbie Ray and Kevin Gausman got from the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays respectively last offseason.
Let's check out the top three suitors for Rodon this time around:
San Francisco Giants
Rodon certainly enjoyed playing in the pitcher-friendly Oracle Park, posting a 2.88 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, and a whopping 237 strikeouts in 178 innings, for a 12.0 K/9. And although Rodon is opting out of his $22M deal for next year, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi says "there is mutual interest" between the team and Rodón on coming to terms on a long-term contract.
And as for those injury concerns? Forget about it—Rodon started a career-best 31 games.
The only obstacle would seem to be the Giants' penchant for avoiding giving out long-term contracts to pitchers. As noted by Marc Delucci at si.com, the Giants have never signed a pitcher to a contract of greater than three years or worth more than $50M. So, yeah, there's that.
Chicago Cubs
According to ESPN Chicago's David Kaplan, the Cubs plan to spend big this offseason and Rodon definitely "piques their interest." Add to that the fact that Rodon is fond of the city of Chicago after he spent his first seven years in the majors with the Chicago White Sox. "[Rodon] loved pitching in Chicago, knows that the Cubs are a team with players coming out of the system. They need a top-of-the-rotation arm," said Kaplan.
The big question here is does Rodon really want to go to a rebuilding team? In a hitter-friendly ballpark?
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