Here are a few miscellaneous signings from around the league…
- The Tigers have agreed to terms with eight pre-arbitration-eligible players according to MLB.com's Jason Beck. The only big leaguer of the bunch is left-hander Phil Coke, who received $425K. The other seven players are minor league prospects.
- Senior Director of Social Media Alyson Footer tweets that the Astros have agreed to terms with a pair of pre-arb players. Outfielder Jason Bourgeois gets $424K, right-hander Aneury Rodriguez $413K. Houston acquired Rodriguez in this offseason's Rule 5 Draft.
- The Diamondbacks have signed Robby Hammock to a minor league contract according to MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. Hammock, 33, spent the 2010 season in the Yankees' minor league system, hitting .233/.341/.370 in 85 plate appearances while battling injury. He played with the D'Backs from 2003 through 2008, and has experience at catcher, first base, third base, and the corner outfield spots.
Phil Coke at 425K is a still, whether it’s money or Kilos.
True, but most pre-arbi contracts are steals. I mean the Braves will get Heyward for something around 400-500k this year.
Not around, they’ll get him for the $400K league min unless they decide to lock him up extra early… he isn’t arbitration eligible until 2013.
He could get a little more than that, as a good faith/reward kind of signing. Mr. Pujols got 600k his second year and 900k his third. Ryan Howard also got 900k his third year. The Braves are under no obligation to give him more the minimum, but they should probably throw in a little bit of money Heyward’s way, lest they risk alienating him when it comes to buying out arb/free agent years.
Ah, didn’t realize that’s how that works, Carl Pavano. So teams will just say “Hey, we’ll pay you a little more even though we have you under contract for X amount”? I thought they just re-worked contracts and went ahead and bought out arbitration years in a win-win kinda way (like I think the Braves did with McCann.)
P.S. Can I borrow the $30M you took from the Yankees?
I have to disagree, 425 kilos would be 935 pounds. That street value would certainly exceed Phil Coke’s value.
Should be STEAL! My mind was wandering as I posted!
Love the Booj. Glad the didn’t let him go.
Why do some players get more than others in pre-arb deals? Why not just have everyone make minimum deal (400 k) instead of some getting 425 and some getting 450?
Because like every other (smart) employer in the world, it’s a business and they need to keep their employees happy and reward them accordingly when they do good work. It’s good for business and for strengthening relationships with their employees. The pre-arb players understand their place in the game, but like anyone else who does a good job for their boss, they want the recognition and reward for doing so, even if it’s an extra 25-50k.
I have to think that isn’t always the reason. I say that because I look at the Braves payroll on Cot’s and see that Jordan Schafer got paid $402,500 for 2010. Now he only played 50 games in 2009 (which are the only 50 games he’s played in the bigs) and he posted a .600 OPS. So he surely must have had the 2010 amount already in his contract, right? No way the Braves threw in extra based on his performance (enhancing) prior to the 2010 season.
Like pretty much everything else in baseball, there is an expectation of a raise going forward regardless of actual performance. It’s the same with arbitration; even though technically a player could get 20% less than the previous year, they never do. The fact that he only got $2,500 more for his performance is a pretty good illustration that they were going to give him SOMETHING more than they had to either way, and the fact that he did so poorly was what brought it down to that level.
Could they say “no, sorry, that was awful. Here’s the bare minimum we’re allowed to pay you?” Yeah, sure. But they’re also going to offend him and if he puts it together like they were expecting he would and it comes time to start making deals about arbitration or buying out years, he’s going to be disinclined to cut the team any slack. $2,500 is an awful small price for a major league baseball franchise to pay to, if not make their players happy, at least keep them from being offended.
Hmmm, I’m skeptical, but I admit I don’t know how this part of it works. If we were talking about Tommy Hanson and his $435K 2010 salary I would buy it, but Schafer was coming off the 50 game suspension and hadn’t shown much at the big league level. But since I admit I am ignorant on this aspect of the sport I will accept what you are saying.
Thanks for the answer.
Hi Carl.
$425K could buy a lot of coke
-_-
Tiger need to trade Guillen and Furbush to the Rangers for Micheal Young and have him play 2nd or short and move Peralta to 2nd base. Please do this Tigers!
Oh God, no.
Look, I want Guillén’s contract off the team as much as the next guy/gal, but I want Michael Young butchering routine ground balls at second base for my team even less. He really should be a DH but, hey, we already have those too.
Also, no Young at short please.