The Florida Marlins plan to talk to agent Matt Sosnick this week regarding a contract extension for Josh Johnson, according to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.
Last month, we recapped the progress, or lack thereof, that the Marlins have made in their attempt to lock up their ace to a long-term deal. At that point, Sosnick was still optimistic about the chances of Johnson remaining in Florida for the foreseeable future. Frisaro notes that, as we previously heard, a key factor in the negotiations is whether or not Florida will guarantee Johnson a fourth year. Sosnick says that if the Marlins make that guarantee, then he will listen.
Frisaro writes that if the two sides don't work out a contract extension, Johnson might be in line to earn about $4.2MM in his second arbitration-eligible year. The right-hander earned $1.45MM in 2009. Frisaro's 2010 salary estimate seems light, as it puts Johnson in the Zach Duke class rather than in league with Felix Hernandez or Justin Verlander. Even Joe Blanton received $5.475MM in his second arbitration year.
Give him the fourth year. He has a chance to be the next Roy Halladay.
Yeah. Johnson, Lincecum, and King Felix are the three best young pitchers in the game, and they all need to be locked up before they cost 25MM a year.
boy this will be a big extension…i hope Lincecum signs one tooo
If Ryan Howard can get 15, 18 and 20M, and all Josh Johnson can get is 4, then he needs to fire his agent. Pathetic, the guy is a beast and is only gonna get better.
Jeez you’re stupid.
Arbitration salaries have nothing to do with an agent’s ability to get his client a better contract. The 4 that he’s talking about is a guarenteed 4th year. The Marlins’ are just paranoid that Johnson is going to get hurt and don’t want to offer him the fourth year.
I think it’s pretty split 50/50 on whether their paranoia is justified but regardless, Johnson is worth the risk. The guy’s huge, he’s like a right handed CC.
And besides, it’s cheaper to do a 4 year deal now and pay him an average of around 8 or 9 million. That’s probably what, about 12 million under market value?
I’m stupid? Glad you aren’t my agent. The point of an agent is to get his client the most money. In Johnson’s case, market value for an arbitration case of his client’s status like Lincecum or Felix. Problem is they haven’t hit those years yet either. You could look at Greinke’s contract, but when he signed it, he hadn’t hit his stride yet and their careers up to the same points in time just aren’t the same. If you look back a couple of years to Big Z’s Arb years, it’s a little telling though. 3.76M, 6.5M, and 12.4M. That was a few years ago before salaries escalated again for the super-stars. If Johnson settles for 4M in his 2nd year of Arb, his agent is stupid and he needs a new one. Precedent has been set and with Lincecum and King Felix both in arb along with him, you could see some new astonishing numbers this year for pitchers, just like Howard got some bigger numbers for position players last year.
Is it THAT hard for you to figure out?
$7m+ seems to be much more likely than under $5m.
I agree that Pitchers and Players are paid differently, but look at the comparative contracts for other players not under arbitration. The highest paid position player is A-rod, making 25M, the highest paid pitcher is CC, making 23M. The difference is not that big, and it still looks as though Josh Johnson is getting the short end of the stick here and Ryan Howard is making out like a bandit.
At the time of signing the contract, I think Howard had already won an MVP or come pretty damn close, and had not had any major injury. He had proven himself and he got paid accordingly. While Josh may be the equivilant of that in a couple years remains to be seen, so a backloaded $44 million contract over 4 years is just fine to me. Maybe a little more. In my opinion, he’ll be well worth it. I think Ricky Nolasco would be good with a 2 yr, $12m extension. I also think he’d be worth it. If anything, he’s durable, and he can pile up the strike outs.
Other than that, I’d hope to extend Coghlan like Longoria was (although I think Longoria’s was a franchise’s dream, and it probably won’t happen again), and extend Cody Ross a 2yr with player option for $5, $7, and the option being $8.5. He’s durable, great defensively, solid at the plate, and he’s great in the clubhouse, not to mention being a fan favorite.
we want damon back
Extend him…..or trade him
His arbitration number started at 1.45MM this year, beacause he had missed more than 1.5 of his first 4 years of service time. Players in his same class (Verlander, Hernandez, etc. started 2MM= higher because their carrer bulk was so much greater. Johnson will get approximately a 3MM raise, as his numbers are similar to Zambrano after his second year. Lifetime starts, CG, GS and QS’s are a huge part of the equation. Chicothekid doesn’t understand the arb. process.
It’s definitely fair to take it into account for both sides. The point of arbitration is that the team gets the player cheaper than market value, not for peanuts, but the fact that he plays for the Marlins shouldn’t matter at all. Numbers are numbers and if they can’t afford to pay the arbitration figures, they shouldn’t be in the league.
The Marlins are worried about offering the 4th year because it will be at an obscenely higher rate because it’s not an arb year, so they would have to pay what is reasonably expected to be market rate with a small discount. This the Marlins folks! Same franchise with a payroll less than Aroid’s contract, remember? Josh Johnson or no, they don’t want anything to do with that, and they’ve got Hanley’s contract to deal with as well. This isn’t about years or injuries, it’s about money because the Marlins are cheap.