Byrnes Offers Discount, Hopes To Stay With Arizona

Eric Byrnes is having a fine season, even correcting the one knock on his offense.  He's on pace to easily set a career high in walks, and his .363 OBP would stand as a career best.  And of course the 31 year-old is endearing to fans with his style of play and personality.  Now he's offering the Diamondbacks a home team discount on a contract extension.

Jack Magruder of the East Valley Tribune says preliminary talks have already taken place.  The Arizona Republic has Byrnes comparing himself to various outfielders who snagged five-year contracts for $9-14MM annually.  Byrnes would be willing to backload the contract.

Magruder doesn't think the D'Backs could commit even $8MM annually to Byrnes, which would be a large discount in itself.  Throw in the scary five-year commitment and something has to give.  Ultimately I imagine Arizona might do 4/32, but Byrnes would really be selling himself short.  He could probably get $11-12MM annually on the open market.  With all the outfield talent in Arizona, I still think they'll let him go.

Comments

[buehrlebro]

I never thought about it this way, but you're probably right. The Matthews Jr. contract really did good for a lot of guys like Byrnes. He could probably be better than GMJ over the course of such a contract anyway. Everyone is talking about bringing in Byrnes as a cheap option- now I realize how unlikely that is. As for a discount, Byrnes always came off as the kind of guy who would give one; we've seen discounts from big names like Buehrle and Hafner recently(at least Hafner probably could have held out for more if he wanted to). If only Damon had the balls to take a lesser offer from Boston than NY, but oh well. Anyway, with all the outfield talent the D-Backs have in their system, it would be best to just let him go and put the money into pitching.

[ArodSucksAtLife]

He's league average, no way D-Backs pay even a discounted 8 million a year for that. Chris Young, Quentin, and Young about a year off, Byrnes is out.

[Darin]

Where's Upton in this discussion?

[ArodSucksAtLife]

That second young was supposed to be Upton, :)

[insomniac]

This is kind of surprising to me, Byrnes has been a 5 tool player since going to Arizona. And is certainly an above average center fielder is this late-career burst is for real.

I would love to see the Braves go get him to replace Andruw.

[bravesbeast]

I COMPLETELY agree, byrnes is a great piece for the braves, but i dont know.

[achilles17]

Keep in mind, even if Quentin continues to struggle, there's still Carlos Gonzalez coming up. He's not having an outstanding season, but it still isn't anything to sneeze at. They just have too much cheap and talented outfield depth to keep Byrnes.

[worldcupfever]

Did they change the 5 tools since I last checked?

[joeysdadjoe]

If I were Byrnes Id want to get myself signed before I morph back into a 4th outfielder.

[bsox21]

"If I were Byrnes Id want to get myself signed before I morph back into a 4th outfielder."

Exactly. He has Brad Wilkerson written all over him.

He's been incredible for my NL only team at $13 bucks for the past couple years, but he goes back into the auction this season, which means I will never own him again.

[Aduncaroo]

"If I were Byrnes Id want to get myself signed before I morph back into a 4th outfielder."

I to agree with this. He needs to get his payday now...

[insomniac]

Wilkerson was never worth a damn.

Byrnes however, worldcupfever, is a .300 20+ home run hitter with 35 SB potential and even the Byrnes haters can't deny his unbelievable range and he does have 8 assists this year.

Hmm, I believe that's 5-tools. He's always had this potential, he's just a late bloomer.

[DentalPlan]

Wilkerson was never worth a damn? Yeah, I don't think the stats agree with you. And I don't buy the late bloomer stuff either. He's a below average center fielder.

His career average is .268, and now he's hitting .306. He's a career .256 hitter against righties, and he's hitting .330 against them this year.

This is all very plausible. I want to sign this guy until he's 37.

There's like one of these guys every year. Remember in 2005 when every team had a huge man crush for Mark Kotsay after his 2004? Every discussion board "Let's get Kotsay!" Surprise surprise, it didn't stick.

It's not happening.

[jza1218]

"Wilkerson was never worth a damn."

Then you haven't been watching baseball that long. From 2002-2004, he was a great player who could play all three OF positions as well as 1B.

Byrnes meanwhile is nowhere near a reliable .300 hitter, has never showed the patience to take walks and yet is having a monster season during his walk year. Not to mention he already has one sub-.300 OBP/sub-.400 SLG season under his belt.

That just screams "one-year wonder" all over it.

[insomniac]

Wilkerson is a good defender, I'll give him that, but essentially he is a poor man's Adam Dunn.

He strikes out 150+ times a year, I honestly can't stand players like that and a career high of 77 rbi's, .268 avg?
No thanks. Sure he has a solid eye, but that'll only get you so far.

[DentalPlan]

That's just your preference though, most teams would say, a guy from 2002-2004 posted an OPS above .840 is indeed worth a damn. He had over 30+ home runs and 100+ walks in 2004.

[jza1218]

"Wilkerson is a good defender, I'll give him that, but essentially he is a poor man's Adam Dunn.

He strikes out 150+ times a year, I honestly can't stand players like that and a career high of 77 rbi's, .268 avg?
No thanks. Sure he has a solid eye, but that'll only get you so far."

Lemme get this straight...you think that Wilkerson's 2002-04 numbers aren't that great?

BUT you'd rather lavish ten million dollars on a guy who just as recently as two years ago had a line of .226/.294/.371?

And BA and RBI's are a horrible indicator of talent or usefulness.

[darkstar1661]

Jza,

"BUT you'd rather lavish ten million dollars on a guy who just as recently as two years ago had a line of .226/.294/.371?"

Do you think that’s fair? I mean he was at his normal in Oakland before he was traded in 2005 (.266/.336/.474) Being shipped off to not 1, but 2 teams within about 15 days may have had something to do with his absolutely non-existent numbers in Col and Bal ~ don’t ya think? Otherwise his numbers stay about the same.

This year he is putting up a higher BA (and OBP as a result), but his SLG isn’t out of line at all considering he’s gone from Hitter-Hater Oak to Hitter-Friendly Arz. Good defense, nice SB%, seems like a very likeable guy…

…Why such the dislike?

Dental,

“That's just your preference though, most teams would say, a guy from 2002-2004 posted an OPS above .840 is indeed worth a damn. He had over 30+ home runs and 100+ walks in 2004.”

I do agree, but I see another side to it as well… 2005 saw him post a Sub Park-Adjusted League-Average in BA and SLG with only his OBP being anything special. Since then he has watched his numbers become rather horrible (although it is only in part-time duty). I guess it really boils down to “how much do you respect numbers at age 27 from 4 years ago if he hasn’t done really anything since”… Not saying he isn’t worth a damn, but it would be a pretty big gamble don’t ya think?

[jza1218]

Darkstar:

In regards to Wilkerson. Reread what Insomniac wrote.

He said that Wilkerson was NEVER worth a damn. We were just pointing out that he was phenomenal over that time period of 2002-2004.

Regarding Byrnes, I've already stated why I think he's being overrated. He's only had one season over his career where he's posted an OBP over .340 (playing full-time), he doesn't play great defense IMO, and I don't think that he will continue this production going into his age-32 season.

[darkstar1661]

Jza,

Ok, I can respect that...
insomniac did greatly undervalue Wilkerson’s 2002 & 2004 seasons by kind of ignoring um ~ not sure I completely agree with 2003 as it was near perfectly LgAvg when adjusted, but the other 2 were strong…

He did look like he could be something special ~ know what happened? Did you follow him enough to know what caused the horrible power drop in 2005 & 2006 and the steady BA decline? Wash hurts, but not that that bad…

As far as Byrnes,
Shoot, I missed one of his entire posts I guess… I can see why the strength against Byrnes after the “300 20+ 35SB Potential” thing… I just personally didnt think he was as bad as it seemed he was being made out to be.

He is pretty much a consistent Avg-BA / Avg-OBP / Plus-SLG guy, and as strange as it seems ~ its kind of difficult to find those types for CF outside of the real stars. I don’t think he’s that great at all, but I think he’s a better bet than Pierre or Mathews and we all know what they got…

Amazingly, the actual average CF numbers are only .268/.334/.416 on the season ~ and when you consider how many star-types we actually, currently have manning the position it really makes you wonder how bad some of the other guys are where it averages out to that line. SS I understand more, 2B I understand more ~ CF just seems unreasonable with guys like Beltran, Sizemore, Granderson, Ichiro, Hunter, etc putting up numbers well above those lines… Who would expect Atl to of gotten only a .217/.315/.417 line from Jones and the CF position ~ and that’s not that bad! The Cubs are at .231/.288/.396… Balt .245/.289/.353… Chi-Sox .231/.290/.315… Tor .245/.306/.421… TB is at only .219/.312/.359… LaD .282/.313/.337… Fla .263/.318/.362… Bos .255/.314/.378… SF .268/.325/.391…

All of a sudden the 270/330/470ish Byrnes should give you doesn’t seem that bad, does it?

[jza1218]

Regarding Wilkerson,

I had him on my Strat-O-Matic team during those years and I was majorly disappointed when he started to falter. He had a shoulder injury and nerve problems in his arm in 05 that I think led to his decline.

Re: Byrnes.

To be honest, I consider him a below-avg BA/below-avg OBP/plus SLG guy.

Comparing him to Pierre and Matthews also doesn't help matters because comparing someone to people with bad contracts are never a good indicator that the person would be worth it.

Considering Byrnes is having a breakout season at age 31, I doubt he will be worth a long-term deal for big money and if I were a team looking to contend next year, I'd rather throw that money at players like Mike Cameron or Aaron Rowand for their defensive reliability.