The latest from around the NL Central…
- Astros lefty Wandy Rodriguez is likely to clear waivers Tuesday, in the opinion of SI's Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The Yankees have no interest, tweets ESPN's Andrew Marchand, and Heyman says the Diamondbacks don't either. Rodriguez is a bargain this year with $1.4MM remaining, but then is owed as much as $36MM over the next three seasons.
- Jose Tabata's $15MM contract was about shared risk, explained Pirates GM Neal Huntington to Michael Sanserino of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I'm still trying to determine what agency collected the commission on the team-friendly deal.
- It'll require compromise to get a deal done with Andrew McCutchen, Huntington told Sanserino. This is much different than the Tabata situation.
McCutchen is gonna require close to $15MM for his first two arbitration years alone. To lock him up with 6 guaranteed seasons would probably require well north of $30MM and that’s only if he’s feeling loyal to the team. If he’s looking for every red cent he can get (and who could blame him for that?) I think it’d require closer to $50MM+ to get the same 6 years of his career on contract.
I totally agree and I hope McCutchen remains true to his desire to stay in Pittsburgh. I believe that 5/$50mil would be a solid deal for both parties. That way McCutchen will be 30 by the end of the deal and still (if all goes well) a viable player with some quality years ahead of him to cash in on.
Also, in the aftermath of that horrifically team friendly deal that Longoria was suckered into no player who’s established how good they are is gonna panic and sign something ridiculously team friendly. These kinds of long term deals can get very complicated if a pre-arbitration player is putting up numbers that they know would get them A-list free agent deals if it they were in a walk season. The best bet for McCutchen is to go year to year. Yeah, it a little riskier with the potential for injury or for his talents to drop off, but look at the thousands of free agents who have taken that risk and reaped the benefits later. I just hope McCutchen isn’t suckered into anything. It’s not like I enjoy seeing the ridiculous salary inflation in baseball, but if that’s what they can and are willing to pay, then no player should deny themselves the opportunity to get the most for their talents.
If I was McCutchen, I’d go year to year and only accept a deal for 3 years/$15MM, maximum. To me that’s the only deal that would be team and player friendly and make everybody happy. It saves the Pirates money by avoiding arbitration and it makes McCutchen a rich man without sacrificing years or dollars of his potential career.
Ya, but the next couple of years the pirates are going to have some big names come to the big league and he might take less so they have some money to get FA’s case they have the young guys mow hey need some veterans
Pirates have never been big FA spenders but they have taken care of their own. People seem to forget that they gave Jason Kendall of all people a massive 6 year/$60MM extension once upon a time. McCutchen is a far better player than Kendall ever was, offensively and defensively and it’s clear that the front office loves him, so it’s going to be a tricky situation if they want to keep him.
I figured the Yankees woundn’t have interest in wandy cause everyone of there starters are piching good…except of course AJ
With the Red Sox hurting for starters, it might be a good idea for them to look at Wandy.
Yes there starters are hurting but wandy would never fare well in the AL much less the AL east the Al hitting and pretty good pitching now the NL though well there’s just pitching with some good power bats.
The Rangers Red sox And Yankees have the three bet offenses in MLB. So wandy would never do
Good or even mediocre in the Al but I do believe he would do good in on the Diamondanack
What ???