The Giants and representatives for Matt Cain failed to make progress towards a contract extension during talks today according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. No further discussions are planned, and although Cain has not set a deadline for a new deal, neither he nor the team wants to be distracted by talks during the regular season.
The 27-year-old right-hander is seeking a contract that reflects his standing as one the best pitchers in baeball, but the Giants are hesitant to pay Cain free agent money a full year before he's scheduled to hit the open market. Rosenthal opines that he could receive a six-year contract worth $20MM annually as a free agent, which would make him the seventh pitcher in baseball history to secure a nine-figure deal.
Earlier this month we heard that the two sides had positive momentum towards a new pact. Cain, a CAA Sports client, has signed extensions twice before, with the second contract buying out one free agent year and giving him a $15MM salary in 2012. He's pitched to a 3.35 ERA in his seven big league seasons, topping the 200 IP plateau in each of the last five years.
5 years $105 million? Gives him the ability to hit free agency as a 32 year old and doesn’t handcuff the Giants
any deal would be an extension, so the new contract would be 6/120 and he’d hit free agency at 33.
Ahh that’s what I meant, sorry.
All this talk of giants and cain and suddenly I have the urge to head to costco for a tub of mayo
What ever Cain gets Timmy will get more. That is alot of money to wrap up in 2 pitchers.
Why not? Best 1-2 in the game and as stretched thin in general as SP is around the league, might as well try to lock up Cain 1st and work out a plan next on Lincecum. it’s not like they have any offensive players they need to be thinking of locking up, other than Posey and he is years away.. Most of the rest they should replace anyway when they approach arbitration, or in some cases FA. Pitching is what wins for that team and they should be working with trying to keep the ones who they can lock down and not be hand cuffed past an age where they will be well past their prime.
I’ll take Halladay Lee but it’s definitely arguable over who is better.
For sure Philly has the best 1-3 w/Hamels.
You know? Interesting off season if neither Cain or Hamels gets their extension done. it will be interesting to see which team will target which.. meaning the NYY.. I think they actually prefer Cain and would make a quick strike, like they did with Sabathia and try to blow the competition out of the water. CC said he wanted to play on the West Coast, then NY threw a 25m AAV deal at him. I think Cain’s professed love of SF will disappear when Steinbrenner tells Cash to offer 5/120m or so right off the bat.
That kind of deal should get them under 189 million by 2014.
The Big 3 in each club’s rotation based on 2011 stats …
Phillies: 2.51 ERA, 1.019 WHIP, 652 K, 121 BB, 7 SHO, 463 ERA+
Angels: 2.84 ERA, 1.073 WHIP, 596 K, 163 BB, 6 SHO, 430 ERA+
Giants: 2.94 ERA, 1.167 WHIP, 590 K, 195 BB, 1 SHO, 364 ERA+
Staggering how good Halladay, Lee, and Hamels were last year.
Best 1-2? Hardly.
Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and CJ Wilson say hi.
(3 of the top 8 starters in baseball in WAR last year).
all i know is the giants are screwed if they lose either one of cain or timmy. get it done. wasn’t the reason we were stingy coming off a world series and then 81 sellouts to make sure we sign cain and lincecum? if we blow this i will be quite pissed! always a diehard giants fan, but i don’t want to be pissed at my team
6/$120 actually sounds reasonable for both sides, considering market value and that it’s still a year away from free agency.
They’ve gotta get Cain, even if it means Lincecum is gone. That way they can extend the magic Cain-Lincecum window for another year. Even if they pick up a mid to high end free agent bat, I don’t like the way this lineup looks without two aces in the rotation.
Cmon giants….if you gotta keep timmy or cainer, go with Cain. He is the bulldog of the staff. He is the longest tenured giant and he is the picture of consistency. Lock him up already!!
Cain and Bum are the present and future of this team and need to get theirs. Bum will get his in time but Cains time is now
In terms of Cain or Lincecum, I really believe that one of the two will be traded during the next offseason; it will cost way too much to retain two pitchers who both could be #1 pitchers on another squad.
Yea i don’t see them both staying either at 130M a piece.
“[T]he Giants are hesitant to pay Cain free agent money a full year before he’s scheduled to hit the open market”
I don’t see much of a problem. He’s already under control for this season, so that’s a sunk cost. When that sunk cost goes away he’ll be a free agent. Just tack on whatever extension to the end of this deal.
The only way waiting is any kind of advantage at all is if he is terrible this year or gets hurt. Otherwise it is likely to cost you more money in absolute terms and definitely more money in AAV. And it might tick the player off on top of that.
Well, whatever. I’m a Cubs fan so I hope he makes it to free agency.
Folks – it makes NO sense to pay market rate (which is the assumption) a full year before you need to commit to anything. Teams do extensions as a compromise. The player is potentially taking LESS money in exchange for the team providing SECURITY before they need to.
If a player isn’t willing to take less money or the team is only offering up a year extension (not providing security) it just doesn’t make sense. Better off waiting to FA. In the meantime, Cain’s cost most likely won’t go up but there is a real chance that he regresses or gets injured. In that case, the Giants save a ton of money.
We’ve seen this time and again – paying full market price for an extension that won’t kick in for a year or two often backfires.
The stadium effect holds true for Cain, but not Lincecum.
Career stats …
Home: 3.06 ERA, 1.210 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, 2.85 K/BB
Away: 2.89 ERA, 1.164 WHIP, 10 K/9, 3.11 K/BB
Marginal difference, but he’s definitely not seeing the major home field advantage that other pitchers have at AT&T.