The latest out of Arizona..
- Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers says that he's been telling free agents he'd rather pay a higher salary on a shorter deal, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Towers says he won't go to five years and probably not even four on a free agent deal. More from the NL West..
- Towers understands that his stance might take him out of the running for some free agent starters, Piecoro tweets. He would go longer to ink Masahiro Tanaka (link), however, as he is the club's No. 1 priority at the moment.
- In addition to talking to Matt Garza, the Diamondbacks met with agents for Ervin Santana, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Of course, signing Santana would cost them first-round pick. Their refusal to go beyond three years for the majority of free agents could also prove to be a road block.
This “higher salary on shorter contract” has been going on for a few years now, and all it does it drive up salaries across the board, both long and short term contracts.
Exactly. It actually drives the value up more then the long term contracts. I wish there were more incentive based contracts, Give the FA a fair base and then add on decent bonuses for benchmarks like 200 IP or 140 games played or .285 batting average or higher. Teams should go into collusion like they use to. It hurt that Seattle went way far and beyond the Yankees in years and guaranteed money. They bid against themselves.
Like they did with Ellsbury……a taste of their own medicine
I was under the impression you can’t have performance based incentives. Had to be on games played/IP/ABs/Games finished… that kind’ve stuff
The Dbacks have a ton of young pitching. Why do they need Tanaka?
they need a front-line caliber pitcher… they have a lot of back-end rotation talent.
They need a legit number 1/2 type pitcher(preferably a 1) and they don’t have the yet. Archie Bradley might be that guy, but rookies don’t usually step into an ace role right away(Not to mention the likely innings count). DBacks have a solid team that is ready to compete for the NL west this year, but they could really use an ace
I agree with Towers. Not really interested in Garza for 4-5 years.
Tanaka isn’t even posted lol
I just heard that the tigers and dbacks are finalists for Santana