Some Saturday links…
- Red Sox GM Theo Epstein expanded a bit on his "bridge year" comment from the Winter Meetings, writes Dan Duggan of The Boston Herald.
- FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Players' Union calculates the present day value of Matt Holliday's deal at $113.6MM, or $16.2MM per year. The Cardinals, however, see the present day value as lower because they use a different discount rate. ESPN's Buster Olney has a breakdown of the award based incentives.
- Chad Jennings of The Journal News has some more utility player candidates for the Yankees.
- Tommy Rancel at DRaysBay wonders if Franklin Gutierrez's contract extension could be used as a blueprint for a potential B.J. Upton extension.
I’m not sure if B.J. Upton is going to get an extension from the Rays. I think Felipe Lopez will get a starting job. Not a utility infielder for the Yanks although I would love to see Felipe in pinstripes.
The Gutierrez and Grady Sizemore contracts are similar, and both compare well to Upton, so I can see the sides working out a deal. Then again, delaying the first year(s) of free agency might cost Upton as much in missed salary opportunity as the contract would be worth. Leaving 20-30MM on the table must be hard, but the 20MM+ guaranteed does a lot to soften to blow.
B.J Upton is a headcase who had one of the worst seasons of all-time last year.. him and Alex Rios need to go to therapy together.
Upton wasn’t even the worst CF last year. So that is really extreme.
The Indians better hope Valbuena is the real deal or else that trade giving up Gutierrez will look pretty bad. Can you imagine an outfield of Gutiereez/Sizemore/Choo?