The Rangers declined their side of Vladimir Guerrero's $9MM option for 2011, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. Instead, Texas will pay a $1MM buyout.
Guerrero, 35, hit .300/.345/.496 with 29 homers last season, his first in Texas. The Rangers would like to keep him, but he is a Type A free agent, so they will obtain a pair of top picks in next year's draft if he declines arbitration to sign elsewhere.
SIGN HIM THEO! I have always adored him as a player.
I wanted the Yankee’s to get him last year but instead they signed the great Nick Johnson! Maybe vlad will sign with the A’s they could use a big bat that’s not gonna break the bank. They might surprise a lot of people next year with how good they are.
Hmm I thought with his solid season they would be picking that option up.
I agree. What was the point of the club option? Could he really have done better? He earned that option being picked up.
Sht Fck Sht (Sorry I couldn’t figure out how to delete this comment)
Assss assss asss
He’d be a great pickup for the Tigers if they can’t get anyone better for that DH position. I thought they’d be picking up his option too, his salary wasn’t unreasonable for the numbers he put up this year. Maybe they’re gambling he’s going to have an off-year next year?
Bizarre move. Do the Rangers think they’ll get him any cheaper? I don’t know why they wouldn’t want him back.
They’re probably making Lee a priority so they’ll have more money to spend on him, and if Lee doesn’t sign with them or Lee is cheaper than they expected, Vlab will most likely be back if he hasn’t found work elsewhere.
He did have a pretty poor second half and postseason, but I thought they’d have picked it up still. Strange, but stranger things have happened. Maybe they want to offer him a 2/12 or 2/14 deal or something.
If Vlad’s not worth a net $8MM for that kind of year, it’s unlikely the Red Sox will deem Big Papi worth a net $12.5MM for his similar year.
Not as confusing a decision as it originally seemed. He definitely played well enough to get his option picked up, but being a type A I guess the Rangers figure they can try to sign him back anyway but get two draft picks if he decides to go elsewhere.
If they offer arby….Vlad very likely accepts. He’ll get a raise on the $5.5M base he made this year….likely will get around $7M. Throw in the $1M buyout he just got and it really won’t save the Rangers much when all is said and done.
Teams will shy away from Vlad if offered arby since it will cost a 1st round pick. I mean, if you’re the Red Sox, would you really want to give up a 1st round pick for the guy? He showed in the World Series why he should DH too….NL teams will likely stay away. Leaving only the 14 AL teams. A few you can cross off right away (Indians, Twins, Royals, etc).
Then again, if the Rangers don’t offer arby….he becomes very attractive to a team like the White Sox, Red Sox, or even a trip back to the Angels. Rangers very likely will lose Vlad for nothing then…..would save $8M….then what, replace him with a $5-6M bat?
The net gain here…..seems virtually non-existent for the Rangers.
What are you talking about? There’s a net gain here.Rangers offer him arbitration, he declines and someone else signs him. It only takes 1 moronic GM (like a Dayton Moore) to sign Vlad to a contract. Like you said it literally costs them nothing to buyout/offer arb rather than just picking up the option. If he declines arb and walks away, then they save the money instead of paying him way too much for one season.
ha, what are you talking about?
Yes, if he signs elsewhere after being offered arby there is a big net gain…..I for one, don’t see even Dayton Moore doing that tough.
It costs the Rangers nothing to do this….except Vlad.
$8M (net) is not way too much for Vlad though. He was worth over $10M in 2010.
As far as his “splits”….guy had a near .900 OPS in September. He tailed off udner the Texas heat in July-August….as do a lot of hitters.
He had a horrible World Series….but again, part of that was being stuck in the OF for game 1 I bet. He’s a DH. No NL team will touch him. So there’s at most 13 teams that will sign him. half to 2/3rds won’t be willing to part with a draft pick for him no matter the pricetag.
The net gain very likely will end up being $1M.
Yeah, but in this case, I believe he would be awarded a minimum of $7mm or $8mm through arbitration. I just don’t see the Rangers come out ahead financially if he is retained. Only way would be if he remains a free agent until late December. However with him, I don’t see that happening. I wonder what his value really is in the market right now. $6mm-$9mm? Look at Nick Johnson, he would have been considered one of the better DH pick ups for any team last year and he was paid $5.5 and he didn’t do squat.
1. He’d get much more in arbitration, just check out the criteria for arbitration. Salary history, years of service, as well as numbers.
2. He’s accept and take that arby money over what he’d get as a free agent.
They won’t offer.
I wonder what type of impact declining this option will have on Lee signing and the direction of the team going forward. Who knows could be a smart move and they’ll resign him later. Maybe they sign someone younger. You have to admit, something about Guerreros mothers home cooking that seems to work..
Paging Kenny Williams…….this the DH we need
very true they went after him last season too but he was offered more money from texas, vlad would be sick on that team, and in the hitters heaven that is the cell he would rake and it never gets very hot at all in there….but getting vlad does hurt a few things for the sox….konerko and the fact they need a left handed bat in there…so assuming konerko resigns konerko is the full time 1st with vlad at full time DH, and trade quentin and edwin jackson and get colby rasmus then the team is set…
Only issue with Vlad is you’d be stuck using Quentin in the OF all the time….and personally think he needs to be at DH once a week or so.
Letting Jim Thome go was pretty foolish. He’s the perfect fit in Chicago as he doesnt need to play everyday and would allow for a guy like Quentin to still get time at DH.
Vlad doesn’t need to play everyday I suppose….but think it’ll be much tougher to sign him if the team doesn’t plan to play him everyday.
If the Twins were to decline Kubel’s option….he’d be a fit in Chicago since he can play the field. Or maybe make a move for Lind from Toronto (could be made available).
Or heck, just bring back Manny Ramirez.
Definitely would be 10 times better than last years’ DH players…Sox need two of Dunn, Konerko, Pena, Berkman, Vlad
What!?! Bid Daddy Vladdy was awesome for Texas last year, he brought a lot to the table, like his mother’s home cooking! You would think that the Rangers would better appreciate Mrs. Altagracia’s son (and food)
Not a bad move at all. Considering the amount of DH types out there this season they have options, the market is flooded with Dh’s…vlad, dunn, dlee, berkamn, branyon, larocach, konerko, carlos pena(more of a 1stbasemen but still same with konerko) glaus(cheap), wiggington, billy hall(had a very very good year), tejeda, uribe(great season) pat burrel, johnny damon, manny, akiel, jermaine dye, could be a move to get crawford?, andruw jones, magglio, werth, hediki, thome, ortiz(if option is delicned)..
i know a few of those guys are position players but still…there are a ton of DH’s out there some better than vlad some not as good some right on par…the market is going to show a lot of these guys signing for cheap
I didn’t see that one coming. Vlad proved he’s still got a lot left if he can stay out of the field. A couple more 30 HR/100 RBI years might net him the HOF, since he’s a career .320/.383/.563 hitter with 436 HR and 1433 RBI right now.
I really hope Texas re-signs him. He fits in there, and provides some veteran leadership for a young team that could lose focus without guys like Vlad and Michael Young.
I would have liked the M’s to sign Vlad last off-season. Maybe he will continue his AL West route and boost a week offensive Mariners or Athletics for 2011.
They signed Vlad for a reason. They wanted RH power. Does anyone see them signing another DH or looking in house?
The Orioles should try to pick him up for 1 year 8 million to play DH.
funny how little people know about the rangers on here… everybody ignored them for years (and rightfully so because they were a bad franchise)… now they are in the world series spotlight so lots of people have strong opinions about what they should or should not do.
never evaluate a move in a vacuum – there are always many moving parts. if you follow the rangers closely you know the defense at 3B is atrocious with mike young. watch as jon daniels persuades young to become the regular DH so he can use vlad’s money to go sign a 3B with a better glove. the dropoff in offense is tolerable, the upgrade in defense more than makes up for it. and it helps the pitching even more when they have a good glove at 3B next to an already strong defensive SS in andrus.
vlad’s bat struggled a lot after the all-star break. don’t blame the texas heat, because it’s not like all (or even most) texas hitters suffered the same dropoff. plain and simple, the rangers made a sound investment, got vlad at a bargain price and got good production out of him. but it’s time to move on.
the people who lose money in the stock market are the ones who keep investing in the same stocks thinking they will continue to yield profits. it’s always better to sell a little bit early than a little too late. ball players are like stocks, and i would trust jon daniels with my investments.
i dunno… it’s a very scary proposition. on one hand, i like the idea of upgrading defense at 3rd base, but am worried about the the bat side of it. Michael Young DOES have a .388 career avg as a DH, but very small sample of 103 AB. Hank Blalock managed a .278 avg while playing 3rd, but dropped 50 points to .228 when asked to DH. Blalock’s last 2 years with the Rangers were both ~$6M. Young weighs in around ~$13M.
Mitch Moreland, i believe, has secured his spot on the 2011 roster by winning the the World Series batting champ position. I still believe that Chris Davis still gets one more shot at cracking the Majors. His best hope of doing so with the Rangers might lie at 3B. His fielding% at AAA was worse than Young’s so he definitely has some work to do. Otherwise, the Rangers do need to find an everyday player at third. But moving Young to DH/utility infield does give you the ability to drop Blanco and Can’t Do.
Jon Daniels has earned our trust in that he will get something done to help us move forward, but that doesn’t mean it won’t worry me. We still need to figure out what’s going on behind home plate. If Molina retires, who do we pick up? As a life long Rangers fan, i would LOVE to see a trade to Washington for Pudge. I feel that he should retire as a Ranger, and should be given the opportunity to not only retire here, but to given a shot to retire here while helping us win the WS.
oh i forgot to add… Vlad also takes up the team’s 5th outfielder spot. Without Vlad, the outfield looks like this: Hamilton, Borbon, Cruz with Murphy and Francoeur on the bench. but the problem with that is Francoeur costs too much to sit on the bench, and Murphy really deserves full time play. Francoeur also hit over .300 for the Mets when they acquired him in a trade during the ’09 season, and then proceeded to hit .237 which prompted his trade to Texas… i dont want to have him on the team if he’s going to hit sub .250 and want tons of money
Young’s defense is bad at 3B……but moving him to DH and paying him $16M over the next 3 seaons is insane.
Young only has value because he can start at 3B. Tying up $30M or so to the DH and 3B spot for 3 years will result in the Rangers falling back into irrelevancy very, very quickly.
Insane?
Young’s contract is what it is. He’s going to stay a Ranger, no other team wants that contract. And frankly as a Ranger fan I don’t mind keeping Young. I wish his salary was lower, but at least he’s a gamer and a good teammate.
But how does it make more sense to pay him $16 million to be a bad 3B, compared to paying him the same money as DH ?? I don’t see how playing bad defense makes him more valuable. I’d play terrible defense but I’m willing to sign for the league minimum… so should the Rangers sign me ? 😉
Interesting they declined the option, man Ortiz is screwed and in for a rude awakening to what Boston is willing to give him