Yesterday, we took a look at how Ryan Howard's contract extension might affect the Phillies' chances of retaining Jayson Werth beyond this season. Following the 2011 campaign, the Phils will face a decision on a player even more crucial to their recent successes than Werth: shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
The Phillies have already exercised their $8.5MM 2011 option for the 2007 National League MVP, and they'll likely want to keep Rollins past next season. He is perhaps the face of the franchise, and has been one of baseball's most productive all-around shortstops since becoming an everyday player in 2001.
The good news for the Phils is that they'll have a couple of bloated contracts coming off the books after 2011. Raul Ibanez and Brad Lidge are both owed $11.5MM in '11, but are probably unlikely to remain in Philadelphia beyond that, and certainly not at that price. However, as MLBTR's Howard Megdal pointed out yesterday, the Phillies already have plenty of other commitments in 2012 and beyond.
MLB.com's Todd Zolecki notes that Rollins has said in the past that he could picture himself finishing his career for a Bay Area club, near where he grew up. These days, the 31-year-old seems more open to staying put in Philadelphia: "We weren't good then. We're good now. As long as we're good, I'm good."
GM Ruben Amaro Jr. insists that Howard's extension won't affect the team's ability to re-sign players like Werth and Rollins, though extension talks with Werth are at an impasse for now. If the Phillies are unable to bring Werth back in 2010, Rollins' chances of remaining with the club look better, since they'll be locked into one less long-term deal. If Rollins does receive a multi-year, big-money extension though, the Phillies' financial flexibility will take yet another hit. Even with a payroll that exceeds $140MM, you have to wonder how much money they can afford to tie up long-term in aging players.
Their is no way they can keep everyone. Zero chance. Unless their is another player named jimmy rollins that we don’t know about
I would guess that even a modest economic recovery would permit greater expenditures, but the likelihood of an enduring recovery is far from certain.
If they manage to hold onto their entire roster with big contracts, we can just call them the Yankees of the NL. No other team will have a chance unless they all start to regress quickly. They can sign an entire all star team yet the Pirates can’t afford to re-sign any player after arbitration.
After arbitration? Matt capps would like to have a word with you.
Shut up about RBI stats not worth anything…
baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hirbi1.shtml
baseball-reference.com/leaders/RBI_season.shtml
Tell me how many of those guys you want to call frauds. I’m sure they’d love to hear it.
You actually just put Ryan Howard in the same group as some of the greatest ballplayers this league’s ever seen. What a joke..
he is saying that people in previous post discount what RBI stat saying that it shouldnt be used for production.
The salaries coming off after this year don’t help at all because Halladay gets a raise, plus Toronto is kicking in $6M this year toward him. That is the equivalent of about a $10M raise, which eats up the expiring deals.
Why was Baez signed for two years again??
Amaro was out drinking with Minyaya, and Hendry. They both said, “Hey, look at how great our contracts have worked out!” And Amaro, in his drunken trance says, “Ok, I’ll sign Baez for two years, just because you seem to know what you’re doing.” Then they all share high fives. It’s a theory, but it’s pretty believable.
To who ever said about them expanding payroll, that cant be right because if you was your rotation would be Halladay,Lee an Hamels but most of the reason they traded Lee was they couldnt AFFORD both of them but yet they resign Werth AND Rollins with the massive contract extension? highly doubt it
Their best bet would be to see if they can dump Ibanez after this year (or at the deadline?) and bring up Brown. Then they have some cash to retain Werth or at least sign another decent outfielder. Of course Raul is going to have to pick up his offense for anyone to be interested.