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Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 1/10/20

The DBacks signed Héctor Rondón; a free agent’s intrinsic value; the Cubs and free agency

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports

FanGraphs | Ben Clemens: The Diamondbacks signed Héctor Rondón, and while he has been on a downward trend with swinging strikes and contact, largely because of his sinker, but if the coaching staff has him lay off of the pitch, there could be marked improvement.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Arthur ($): While people may have been puzzled by the value of Zack Wheeler’s contract, it’s because teams are moving to an “intrinsic value” model whereby they don’t use past performance, but intrinsic qualities to the player to determine what they may well do in the future.

The Ringer | Michael Baumann: The Cubs have signed a grand total of zero free agents this offseason, and that’s after a quiet 2018-19 offseason as well. They’ve only made baffling signings since the big ones (Jon Lester, Dexter Fowler, Ben Zobrist) that earned them a title—Tyler Chatwood, Craig Kimbrel, and Yu Darvish are an odd bunch and show that they weren’t all-too-serious about improving in that arena, and preferred to upgrade in bigger ways in midseason trades. With the farm system tapped and the team in dire straits, they’ll need to do something to win another ring.