Rise and Phight: 12/13/2022

Chris Bassitt signed a deal last night, one that might have been more palatable, or even preferable, to the one the Phillies signed Taijuan Walker to. Philadelphia might have been interested in Bassitt at one point, but once the qualifying offer was attached to his name, all notions of his coming to Philadelphia were gone. The team was pretty clear that they really only wanted to lose draft picks and international money for one player, not two. They chose (wisely) to use that on Trea Turner.

However, maybe you preferred what the Blue Jays gave Bassitt to what the Phillies gave Walker. Were that true, I’d ask this. Would you rather have:

A) Walker on his deal + Turner/Bryson Stott as your SS/2B combination, or
B) Bassitt on his deal + Stott/Jean Segura as your SS/2B combination

Those would likely be the choices the team would have had seeing as how there really aren’t that many infield upgrades that aren’t attached to a qualifying offer.

So, which would you rather have?

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Which areas do the 2022 offseason moves most impact? Todd Zolecki discusses how the team has changed with the moves so far.
• Maybe it’s because I haven’t looked too deeply into his game, but Matt Strahm might be a sneakily good pickup for this team.

MLB news:

• You know who’s really impacted by the new rules? The managers. How do they feel about them heading into 2023?
• Want to complain about how Steve Cohen is operating? Too bad, because according to Ken Rosenthal, baseball needs more owners like him (here here!).
• Speaking of those rascals, the Mets lost one of their pitchers to the Blue Jays, Chris Bassitt heading north of the border for the next three seasons.
• Sean Manaea is staying on the west coast, agreeing to a two-year deal with the San Francisco Giants.
• Finally, the long national nightmare is over for Sean Murphy. He’s heading to Atlanta in a three-team deal that doesn’t make a lot of sense for one team.