Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wonders why more teams don't take advantage of arbitration hearings. Clubs do have a history of winning cases against their players in recent years. Here are Cafardo's latest rumors:
- A Red Sox source tells Cafardo that it's unlikely the team signs Ben Sheets. Not a surprise, given Boston's rotation depth.
- One scout is certain Ron Mahay will be on a major league roster by the time Spring Training starts.
- An NL scout considers Miguel Batista a "very serviceable piece."
- Since Miguel Cabrera was in rehab for alcoholism this offseason, teams weren't eager to trade prospects for the first baseman and pay his $20MM salary.
- As we heard last week, the Twins are interested in signing Jim Thome.
- The Red Sox and Angels considered swapping Mike Lowell for Gary Matthews Jr. before concerns about Lowell's thumb emerged.
- An AL GM considers Joel Pineiro "another middle-rotation guy."
The Mets will sign Sheets. They have an opening on their DL that they need to fill.
An opening on the DL? Haha.
Seriously though, if they don’t sign Sheets and another pitcher their going to be in deep shit.
It’s so true…The Mets ruined their chances on trades such as Javier Vazquez, Edwin Jackson..and have passed up on Doug Davis, Joel Piniero, John Lackey, Jason Marquis, Rich Harden, Randy Wolf, etc…The Mets passed up on some nice oppurtunities to get some quality starters. Possible trades brewing? The Mets need rotation help.
Mets have been quite disappointing since 2006.
Front office should be completely re-tooled. They have a nice core of players but every year that passes is wasting players time with them, smh.
He wonders “why” more teams don’t take advantage of arbitration? Seriously?
Haven’t we all been inundated with these stories over the past 2 weeks about the hard feelings that players harbor after these hearing?
Cafardo is such a dope…and I’m a RED SOX fan so I hear his goofy crap all the time.
Pretty much said everything I was going to say. A team basically has to go into a room and tell a player why he’s worth 6m instead of 8m. That’s not a problem for all players, if the team offers the highest deal then they’ll sign it, but for smaller market clubs if you want to get you guy to give you a hometown discount having bad feelings on the player’s side isnt a good way to go
well anytime you can take a star young player into a court room and explain to him why he’s not as good as a comparable player on another team you gotta do it… oh wait.
I don’t oppose the Sox signing Sheets but I think it is a huge waste of money if it is in the $10M/1yr range.
Something creative might work:
1 yr base salary $2M
$200k per starts 1-5 ($1M)
$300k per starts 6-15 ($3M)
$400k per starts 16-25 ($4M)
$500k per starts 26+
$500k per playoff start
$50k per relief innings 1-30 ($1.5M)
$100k per relief innings 31+
Player opt out July 15 if salary has not reached $4M but team can turn down opt out if they agree to pay $9M as 2010 salary. Team opt out July 15 if player is on DL for X amount of days.
2nd mutual option for 2010 salary plus $2M
A player would never sign this contract though.
“A player would never sign this contract though.”
I liked that portion of your post, because the other wasnt realistic.
Exactly. It is not realistic that a player would sign a non-guaranteed contract. Therefore, “I think it is a huge waste of money (if the Red Sox offererd) in the $10M/1yr range” which is what Sheets is aiming for.
The deal above could fetch him $12M+ if he was healthy and good enough to be a regular in the rotation but obviously if a player doesn’t think they are good enough to crack the top 5, or think they may get hurt, they wouldn’t do it.
The Mets can still sign Jon Garland and Ben Sheets.
Santana
Sheets
Pelfrey
Garland
Maine
Oliver ready to step in hopefully if any injuries happen.
Disclaimer: I’m not a Met fan at all, but would like to see this disaster turn into some hope for the people who are actually fans.
Nice, but not happening. Like it or not, Ollie is on the SP roster come opening day baring injury. They’re not going to eat the 24 MIL left on his contract and release him. They’re not going to pay him 12 MIL this year to sit in the BP.
Can’t send him to the minors as he’s vested and his contract makes him virtually untradeable right now.
FO along with every Met fan has their fingers crossed his stint at the TX sports training complex since Nov. has him at least in shape to start the season.
Why in the world would the Red Sox have given serious thoughts of trading Lowell for GMJ? First, off any contending AL East team should think of the Angels with the same respect as they do a team in their own division. The Sox trading with the Angels would be a step below trading with the Yanks or Rays. Secondly, Lowell might be out of a position, but unless they view him as a clubhouse problem, which I doubt, then he still has much more value than GMJ. Lowell, could at least be a DH platoon with Ortiz and back up to Beltre and Youks. GMJ would be a 5th OF, and not a very good one. That doesn’t sound like a logical path Theo would consider for more than two seconds.
“but unless they view him as a clubhouse problem, which I doubt”
But I think they’ve made it sound like it will be an issue. Last year he complained about playing too much during the first half when he ended up on the DL, then when he came back he complained about not getting enough playing time.
I’ve watched Sean McAdams and others on CCSNE and all of them see no chance of Lowell returning, he’ll have to prove he can hit in ST but come opening day he’ll be gone.
Yeah but the same, and worse, have been said about GMJ and his desire to start. I would think the Lowell would be LESS of an issue considering the fact that his teamates and fans love him than a new guy like GMJ would be. Also, Lowell can still be a positive contributor on the field. So it’s a matter of having a unhappy Lowell who can still be a major contributor or an unhappy GMJ who will be no more than a 5th OF and has ZERO relationships or good will invested in the team.
I agree with GMJ being a worse option than Lowell.
But from everything I’ve heard from Boston reporters and stuff it looks like theres no chance of Lowell returning to the Sox this year. They all said he was mad about them trying to get Tex last year, this year they tried to trade him and that failed, just dont see him coming back because he wont be happy as a part-time player
Agree with your post.
My guess is that the deal being discussed was much more than just Lowell and Matthews. Straight-up the deal doesn’t make sense for the Red Sox. Heck, Lowell could never play a game again and the deal is still a huge win for the Angels.
The Sox should sign Sheets(if his price comes down to like $5M/yr, which it won’t) or Erik Bedard. You can never have too much pitching. Remember last year, Sox fans? When we thought we had such GREAT ROTATION DEPTH, then Dice-K got hurt, Wakefield got hurt, Penny tanked and Smoltz came up and fell off the face of the earth. Then, we were stuck scrambling for pitching, so at the deadline they push hard for King Felix(they offered an ok deal, but they could’ve added a couple more guys) and end uyp signing who else but Paul Blanking Byrd, who gives 2 good starts then shows why noone signed him and tanks. We had to rely on guys like Buccholz, who held his own and did very well, and Bowden, who is Justin Masterson 2.0. They really should get another pitcher or 2, so we can avoid what happened last year.
totally agree 100%! If we’re still looking to bolster the bullpen, why don’t we pick up an underrated past closer…David Weathers? Huh? He still seems ok to pitch! Thoughts?
Boston’s “Rotation Depth” is back!!!!!!