The Red Sox avoided arbitration with center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury on a deal worth $8.05MM, tweets MLBTR's Ben-Nicholson-Smith. MLBTR projected a $7.9MM salary for Ellsbury, who finished second in the AL MVP voting. The Red Sox still have multiple arbitration cases to settle.
Some say Ellsbury's salary is a record for a second-time arbitration eligible player, but Miguel Cabrera received $11.3MM in 2007 a few months before agreeing to a multiyear deal (in which his '07 salary remained unchanged).
Thought he would get to $8.5 -$9. Unless he has “very good” season I dont see him getting over the $10.95m Arb salary Ethier got
very good season? the guy had a mvp like season this past season. im a yankees fan, but i still think the redsox are mishandleing him. whens his contract up? he should go to a team where they respect him, and not give him arbitration money but extend his contract. Ellsburry was a big reason why the sox were even in the playoff race last year.
I assume he meant a very good season in 2012 to approach what Ethier got this year in his final year of arbitration. I would hardly say the Red Sox are mistreating or disrespecting him. 2011 was his breakout year and signing him to a huge extension at the height of his value isn’t normally the best business practice. Chances are that he will never have a season like 2011 again. If he does, then his free agent years won’t cost significantly more than they would if they extended him now, and you would be much more confident that he could replicate that success going forward.
They’ve tried to talk extension with him several time & he doesn’t want to do it. His agent is Boras, so that basically explains that.
good points all around. extending players after insane career years is brilliant business – and going year-to-year with players is definitely disrespectful. that’s why the yankees extended cano instead of just picking up his option
The following comments picked up what I was implying. He would need to have close to as good a season in 2012 to reach the near $11m that Ethier got. If you had asked me 2 days ago I would’ve expected him to be closer to 12m+ then 11m.
No extension btw. Enjoy the next 2 years though. Not like he’s walking out the door tomorrow.
The following comments picked up what I was implying. He would need to have close to as good a season in 2012 to reach the near $11m that Ethier got. If you had asked me 2 days ago I would’ve expected him to be closer to 12m+ then 11m.
No extension btw. Enjoy the next 2 years though. Not like he’s walking out the door tomorrow.
the reason the sox cant sign him long tern is Boras. He is waiting for free agency to see if someone bites on a huge contract. The red sox will hopefully call Boras bluff and get him signed!
Time to trade the kid. This kid has a bad taste in his mouth from two years ago, is said to only talk to Lowrie and the Sox can’t afford to re-sign him at the money Borassss would want. So, dump him now, for pitching and a decent CF. Let Crawford or Pedey lead off.
Problem is, the Red Sox are still a contending team. They kind of have to be, given their bloated payroll and fan expectations (plus the fact that the Sox have been having ‘bridge years’ for the past 3 years, I don’t think the fans would accept a 4th bridge to nowhere). So then, who replaces Ellsbury in CF? You’re not going to get back a great pitcher AND a capable CF replacement without giving up more than just Ellsbury. They have zero major league options in their upper minors. Plus, their outfield sans Ellsbury is already sub-par.
It’s safe to say he’s not getting traded. He’ll play with the Sox and provide them great production for the next few years, then leave for hundreds of millions of dollars to some other team, leaving the Sox with nothing.
Maybe they should have thought of that before using the Boston PR machine to blame him for having broken ribs.
You don’t trade away your superstar because of chemistry issues, and a big market team doesn’t worry about resigning a player, especially 2 years away from FA.
Blue–spoken like a member of Yankee Nation. I’m not saying the Yankees would be interested in Ells but if they were I think a very fair trade would be “Super Nova” or Pineda, Gardner and Nunez for a very affordable MVP runner-up, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger–with two years to sign him long term. The Yankees may be, along with Seattle, the only two teams in two years with the money to sign Ells long term. Gammons reported today Seattle would have traded Pineda for Ells.
Perhaps this would be the piece(Ells) and Betances and a few other pieces that would land the Yankees the really big prize King Felix.
I am a Red Sox fan wot.
i wouldnt sign him to an extention bec he would ask for the sky so maybe we trade him at the deadline. if you do trade him w better get a top of the line pitcher like felix. the only probelm with that is the fact that we would have no one who could play center like him and i dont see crawford or pedria doing well as a leadoff hitter.
if he has a sub-std year like Crawford just had will his pay go back to $2M,,,,RELAX I am not saying he will; but, it would be funny if he got another pay raise to his current raise if that substd year did happen
Even if Ellsbury reaches FA, that doesnt mean he won’t resign. Boston would be stupid to let a talent Like Ellsbury walk right out of Boston. They would definitely be the favorites to resign him but don’t count out a team like the Cubs to throw in an extra couple million to try and snag him away. Especially since Theo is now the main man in Chicago
Chicago is right up there in salary with the Red Sox so they could try to outbid Boston. But with the Cubs still trying to rebuild, who knows who they will try to sign next offseason. They could sign Ellsbury as their future franchise player for all we know. I see him going back to Boston though. Chicago is a mess right now and Boston needs Ellsbury in the lineup
This is about the best scenario the Sox and BenC could have hoped for. BenC I would suggest you take the bargain to the marketplace and see what potentially bound playoff teams would offer for Ells.The Nats, Phils, Braves, Marlins, Angels, Rangers, Tigers, Royals, Yankees.The NL teams I’m not very familiar with–this might be a place to start in the AL. Put Ells in CF at the Stadium in return for Pineda or Nova, Gardiner or Swisher and Nunez.Put Ells in CF with the Phils for Shane Victorino, Vance Worley and Ty Wigginton.Put Ells in CF for the Angels for Dan Haren and Peter Bourjos or Bourjos, Jerome Williams, and Callaspo.Yes I think that’s a fair return for second in the league MVP, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and almost a guarantee he will sign a long term contract immediately if one is offered and it’s fair.