Vladimir Guerrero wants a three-year contract from other clubs, but is willing to accept a two-year deal to return to Texas, reports MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. "Length of contract appears to be more important to Guerrero than the financial terms," Sullian writes, and he also says that the Rangers would prefer bringing Guerrero back on just a one-year pact.
The Rangers declined their $9MM option on Guerrero for 2011 and didn't offer him salary arbitration, so he can be signed by any team without the loss of a draft pick. We've heard that Guerrero has been talking to at least four teams, including the Rangers, but his desire for a multi-year contract may be a hurdle given his age (36) and the fact he's limited to just a DH role.
Given Guerrero's popularity in the Rangers clubhouse and his big role in their march to the AL pennant, the club could give Guerrero the two-year deal he wants if it comes with a very modest raise on the $5.5MM he made in 2010. It's hard to see any team giving Guerrero a three-year contract, however, so he may be forced to lower his demands to two years for everyone, or perhaps sign a one-year deal with a vesting option.
Good for him – he knows what side his bread is buttered on, and he may not get a better offer. Good not to price himself out of the market.
Agreed. This was his big year to lead a team to the World Series. He did. Didn’t win, but it was the year for his career to take that step. In my opinion, he will end up being a guy who has to sign one year incentive laden deals for the rest of his career.
Sooo, like, are the Rangers getting a redeemable coupon in the mail or something?
He is still one heck of a impact bat. Probably won’t hurt him to wait closer to the end of the month or so until the free agent market thins out a bit and teams get more aggressive.
There’s a limited about of DH openings, the longer he expects 2-3 years the fewer openings he will have.
Not sure I’d want him for any more than a year (though I could tolerate two years). Honestly, much of his production last year was amplified tremendously by the park he was in. And during the second half of the season, he faded quite significantly. At his age and with his history, he’s not worth much more than incentive-laden one year deals. I still don’t think, dollar for dollar, stat for stat, he was that huge a loss for the Angels, given the park inflation and second half swoon.
I’m not sure I follow your logic: The Rangers get twice the production from Vlad (compared to his last year in LA) for a third of the price that the Angels paid in 09. He also put up better numbers than Matsui did and for less money. But it wasn’t a loss for the Angels. Huh?As for his “second half swoon,” he hit .278 with 9 homers and 40 RBI. Not bad, and it was obviously good enough to help extend the Rangers’ lead over the Angels down the stretch.And as for the “park inflation,” the Rangers knew he was a terrific career hitter at The Ballpark and that is part of the reason they signed him. And the home/road splits really weren’t as dramatic as you make them out to be: .315, 16, 63 at home and .284, 13, 54 on the road.Oh, and for good measure, he raked over there at Disneyland stadium, just to remind the fans what got away. .324, 4, 13 and only 2 K’s in 37 at bats.But he wasn’t a huge loss.
“he hit .278 with 9 homers and 40 RBI. Not bad, and it was obviously good enough to help extend the Rangers’ lead over the Angels down the stretch.”
He hit .278/.322/.426 which is a .748. So yes that’s bad for a DH. Saying it was good enough to extend the lead means nothing, because there are 24 other guys on the roster, even more when roster expand, that helped the Rangers stretch the lead.
I don’t think Vlad instead of Matsui was what increased the Rangers lead towards the end of the season. It was really the sum of all the parts for both teams.
Vlads second half stats:
.278/.322/.426, 9 homers, 40 rbi
Matsui’s second half stats:
.309/.402/.553, 11 homers, 37 rbi
Now, I’m definitely not saying that I would have preferred Matsui over Vlad but Vlad wasn’t the reason the Rangers pulled away in the second half over the Angels.
Overall, Vlad’s 2010’s stats were better than Matsui’s because Vlad was hot at the beginning and Matsui sucked. But when you look at the stats over the entire year he definitely was not a “huge loss” for the Angels:
Vlady’s 2010: .300/.345/.496, 29 HR, 115 RBI
Matsui 2010: .274/.361/.459, 21 HR, 84 RBI
Prefer Vlad? Of course. Huge loss? No way.
obligatory, but apt, “Jeter, take note” post
Why can’t all baseball players do this on Black Friday?
He’ll be back. And the Rangers will get either Lee, Greinke or both. Just announced today they are getting a few new jumbotrons around the ballpark. The Texas Rangers are turning into the real deal….
It takes more than one solid season and a couple trade/free agent rumors to become the real deal…
Ohh geeze, gemme a break. I said “turning” into the real deal. I didnt say they were. If you paid attention to what obstacles they overcame this past season and where they ended up at the end of the year, and have been paying attention to what direction ownership is headed, oh… and who they might bring in, then you would realize they have a legitimate shot to make the WS year in and year out.
But then again I dont know much about the Yankees or Rockies or whoever you like.
Your argument consisted of three rumors and new jumbotrons…
Rangers should not cave in to this, as there are plenty of alternatives to Vlad if they do not like the price
The Rangers need to pass other than a one deal, he is a one dimensional player now, a DH. It would a lot better for the Rangers to sign someone who could rotate in at 1B which inexperienced Mitch Moreland there.