The Angels won their arbitration hearing with Jered Weaver, MLBTR has learned. As our Arb Tracker shows, the Angels offered $7.365MM, while Weaver and agent Scott Boras countered with an $8.8MM submission.
Weaver earned $4.625MM last year and pitched like an ace. He posted a 3.01 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 224 1/3 innings. The 28-year-old fly ball pitcher made the All-Star team and finished sixth in the voting for the AL Cy Young Award.
Ross Ohlendorf won his hearing with the Pirates earlier in the week, so teams and players have each won one of the two hearings to take place so far this offseason. Ten arbitration eligible players remain unsigned for 2011.
Wow. Didn’t think that would happen.
The real question is whether beating Weaver is really “winning” or not.
I don’t think it is. The only “winning” would have been a civilized agreement.
First win for the Angels in the off-season after brutal losses.
Congratz!
I dont agree with it being a win, lets see when he becomes a free agent who won.
Of course it’s a win. Hurt feelings in this arbitration loss won’t be an issue when he becomes a FA. He will only come back to the Angels if they are the highest bidder anyway.
That is too true… Chances are he was planning on testing the waters
ORLANDO CABRERA TO CLEVELAND, MAJOR LEAGUE CONTRACT, ONE YEAR, 1 MILLION APROX.
Well! THAT’S nice and relevant to this thread! :p
(Good heads-up anyway…I think?)
I guess we can take solace in the fact it wasn’t NYY or BOS breaking news.
NYY SIGN BEN SHEETS TO MAJOR LEAGUE CONTRACT, ONE YEAR, 20 MILLION APPROX
The arbitrators must have felt bad for the Angels and gave them a break.
Always glad to see the team win. When a team wins, all the other teams win as well.
Too little too late.
Weaver will be worth more as a FA next year anyway. And he will remember the Angels stiffing him that extra few bucks while trading for crappy Vernon Wells and his 84 Million.
First, Weaver isn’t a FA until after 2012, and I actually think this helps the Angels negotiate a 3 year deal to buy out his first year of FA, they could offer $30/3 years, which would be a rais this year, guaranteed money for 2 more years, in effect paying him $15M in 2013, which is a slight discount from the $17-20M he will likely command as the dominant FA starter in 2013, provided he continues to produce at this level.
Small problem: His agent is Boras. He’s not likely to give away 1 FA year for that kind of discount. It costs his client money AND pushes FA a year farther away.
It’s guaranteed money, and it is typical of extensions for players under control to give up 1 year of FA in order to lock in a dollar amount. Whether it is $30M or $35, ultimately, it is good business for Boras, his client and, with a talent like Weaver, the Angels.
No it’s not. If he gives up that 1 year he could potentially be costing his client 10s of millions of dollars if he gets hurt. Risk/reward with Boras usually points to either a long term extension, or FA as soon as possible.
I definitely think that this *could* play out as a factor. However, Weaver is represented by Boras. The guy who drills in his clients the fact that they have no allegiance to an organization or fan base. 90% chance that Weaver was going to head to the team that paid him the most before the hearing. Those odds probably increased to 95%.
Believe me Weaver wants to stay an Angel. The angels will give him a pretty good offer, as long as he gets close to marker value I don’t see him becoming a free agent.
He got over a million less than he thought he was worth. There are going to be some hard feeling to overcome if he is to stay in LA.
Hard feelings mean exactly squat in Boras led negotiations. If the Angels pay him the most money come FA time, he will remain an Angel. If not, he will sign with the team that does.
I feel like hard or good feelings really mean squat in Boras negotiations. And I feel like Reagins and the Angels brass know that and figured they’d play it hard, since Weaver would be testing FA anyway (similar to the reason that the Cards haven’t countered Pujols in my opinion). Lord knows Arte has a beef with Boras already. Why not play hardball
And how often has Moreno paid top dollar for a Boras client? Or any FA in the last 4 years for that matter? They missed out on Tex, Beltre, Crawford, etc.
Exactly, which makes the savings in arbitration look even better. He is more than likely to sign elsewhere anyway.
Since when do Scott Boras clients not test free agency?
No offense, but how do you know that he absolutely wants to stay and Angel? Let’s assume that he does though. Why shouldn’t he ask for and get AT LEAST MARKET VALUE or more, which is usually what happens when an elite pitching talent hits the open market.
Consider this:
-The Angels have a horrible record keeping or obtaining Boras clients as FA.
-They just jerked him over a mil.
-He’s going to be 30 when he hits free agency. Why should he settle for “a pretty good offer…….. close to marker value”.
I dig that he’s a California product and I’m not saying he will be a Yankee, but there will be a ton of teams looking for pitching and he’s among the best.
I was thinking the same thing. How can Weaver not look at Wells each and everyday in the clubhouse and not remember that the Angels stiffed him over a couple of million?
Boras loses. What a glorious day.
Maybe the arbitrator felt bad for the Halos! HE knew that had been screwed by everyone else the winter!!
Hard to believe Weaver will be the lowest paid starter in the Angels rotation this season… Haren ($12.75mm), Kazmir ($12mm), Santana ($8mm), Pineiro ($8mm)
I can hear him counting down the days ’til free agency in 2013!!
Wow…that just makes it worse.
That knocks Boras down a peg, doesn’t it? …Well, maybe half a peg?
He goes from the number 1 agent to the number 1 agent.
Yay ! They are willing to fight for 1M but will gladly take 84M Wells is owned. I love baseball man.
Best perspective ever…ds
Wow we beat Boras, and probably pissed of our ace. Short sighted thinking.
This decision pegs Weaver’s value at just over 12 mil on the open market. Epic fail by the arbitrator.
This isn’t the open market…
Second year arbitration is supposed to represent 60% of the players value on the open market.
Ignore this.
so 12 mil X 60%????
thats 7.2 mil
And that’s about what Weaver got. It’s 12.275 mil if you want to be very specific.
More like “Angels piss off ace pitcher then wonder why he wants to get away from Anaheim in two years”
Everyone is forgetting who Scott Boras is.. It doesn’t matter if he is pissed off or not, he isn’t going to give the Angels a discount come free agent time anyway. He will go for the highest bidder, Angels will sign him if they pay him the most money.
I think the best hope the Angels had was to hope that there best offer was close enough that his desire to stay with the team was great enough to overcome the difference. Sort of like..
Angels offer 6/$120 + his desire to stay > $132 mil from anyone else.
I thought Weaver was a lock to win his case. This is very short sighted on the Angels behalf, it could bite them in the ass with Boras next summer.
$8.8M was a steal as it was. They better lock him up for a few years soon, or he’s going to get into the upper 10’s. Especially with the shortage of star starters.
This is probably a bigger loss for the angels in the long term than any sort of gain. Why wouldn’t weaver be worth the extra million? That’s a sick joke compared to Wells’ contract. Weaver deserves way more than that… and the angels spit in his face.
They aren’t the same … not even close. You cannot compare the arbitration process to signing a free agent contract or acquiring talent via trades.
No question that the Angels screwed the pooch royally with the Wells deal, but that doesn’t mean that they should overpay (according to the arbiters) for Weaver.
Just because the arbiters picked the angels’ over weaver’s submission doesn’t make that a realistic value for weaver. As one poster above said, he will now be the lowest paid SP in the rotation. That’s retarded. I hope he leaves LA and comes directly to Toronto. We’ll pay him a fair price.
Matt – you are missing the point. Arbitration values don’t mean a thing when compared against FA values. In almost EVERY case a player under team controlled arbitration years will earn significantly less than they would make on the open market as a FA.
Weaver isn’t being compared to Haren or Kazmir or even Santana (who decided to forgo arbitration and sign a long-term contract). Instead you need to look at Marcum, Liriano, Garza, etc as better comps from a financial perspective.
To be clear – on the open market Weaver is worth significantly more than $7.3m. However, the arbitration panel had only to determine if his value was more or less than $8.1m. In this case they said that Weaver was worth less. Agree or disagree, an impartial panel set Weaver’s (and his comparables) to this value.
And that will mean nothing come FA negotiation time. If the Angels offer him the biggest contract come FA time, he will remain an Angel. If not, he will go where the money is greatest. This is a nice win for the Angels.
Great way to make Weaver happy to be an Angel.
I just picture Tony Reagins doing a massive fist pump while saying “All according to plan.”
I started a joke that involved a conversation with Weaver and Vernon wells on the first day of spring training…
I lost my mojo half way through.
feel free to run with it
(Wells) “So Jared..” (JW) “Yeah…hey Vern”….(Wells) “So they..” (JW) “Nope they didn’t”…(Wells) “Dude I’m sor..” (JW) “Don’t worry ’bout it”. (Wells) “Drinks on me?” (JW) “D@mn skippy they are”.
How come in your writeups of Weaver you always fail to mention he led MLB in strikeouts last year?
mlbtr is run by a secret group of mlb owners whose sole objective is to win arbitration cases and keep jermaine dye out of baseball.
Wow Lunchbox45, I thought that was our secret.
– BNS
I cracked under the pressure and leaked the information. I apologize. I hope we can still be friends
LB45
I agree with most here, the Angels will end up losers in this deal.
Only way Angels win is a multi-year contract.
He got right in line with what his comps (Hernandez, Verlander and Josh Johnson) got during 2nd year arb. Get to work on something like a 5/80 extension for him just like Felix and Verlander signed.
Won’t happen, not with Boras as his agent. Either the Angels pay big now, or they compete against the field once he hits FA.
They’d have to compete against the field anyway. Boras isn’t into giving home team discounts, he simply goes to the highest bidder. The money the Angels just saved they can put towards the contract offer they tender him when he becomes a FA.
Well Cargo’s desire to extend with the Rox showed that Boras won’t stand in the way of clients who want to stay with their home team and avoid the open market. I don’t think the Angels are creating and atmosphere were Weaver feels like doing that though.
Or 90/6 I think he would jump at, next off season. If the Angels don’t pretend they are the only team that exist again.
Please cite an example where a top Boras client signed an extension a year before becoming a FA.
I can’t. Just operating on the idea that they have had contract negotiation, recently.
Andruw Jones
I think there were one or two others, but year, definitely the exception rather than the rule.
Carlos Gomez, 7/80 barely 3 months ago for starters.
*Gonzalez
i dont htink carGo was going to be a FA next year, which is what he was asking
Cargo was several years away from free agency. He wasn’t even arbitration eligible so he was at least 4 years away from the open market.
Exactly. Why go that far on a year to year basis then sign an extension a year away from free agency?
I wouldn’t give him 6/$90. If he has a great year again in 2011 he’s looking at $10m payday for 2012. That would essentially give him a 5/$80 deal for his FA years. That’s a lot of dough and certainly not much of a discount given that you are making the deal 2 years before it needs to be done.
I would see where this season goes. If he repeats then you go to the table next year and be prepared for 6/$100m type deal. If he turns in a year with an ERA in the low 4’s then you can get him for significantly less.
As an Angels fan I certainly hope for a repeat of 2010. As a realist I don’t see that happening at all. I’m hopeful for an ERA in the mid 3’s and 200 IP.
damn angels why do this to us fans? give jered w/e he wants. you cant trrade for a contract like wells and then shove it to the face of your franchise….
As a fan you want the organization to spend money they don’t need to? Two wrongs don’t make a right. They screwed up on Wells. That means they have to be even MORE cautious with other signings.
The fact is that this will most likely have very little impact on Weaver’s decision to stay with the team after the 2012 season.
*er Gonzales…you know what I meant.