6:15pm: Morse's deal is worth about $10.5MM over two years, according to the Associated Press.
4:17pm: It's a two-year deal, MLB.com's Bill Ladson tweets. The agreement buys out Morse's two remaining seasons of arbitration eligibility.
3:25pm: The Nationals announced that they agreed to sign Michael Morse to a contract extension. The team agreed to extend Morse before this week's deadline for exchanging arbitration figures and Morse has since passed his physical, making the deal official. The ACES client filed at $5MM with the Nationals countering at $3.5MM.
Morse, 29, broke out with his best season yet in 2011. He posted a .303/.360/.550 line and hit 31 home runs while playing left field and first base. The Nationals acquired him from the Mariners in a 2009 trade.
Tim Dierkes recently previewed a possible deal between Morse and the Nationals, suggesting a three-year, $18.5MM extension with a club option for a fourth year might work for both sides.
Morse is a beast.
A 30 year old one year wonder.
Not to mention the steroid issue earlier in his career.
So I’m assuming by now that MLBTR has pre-written “Nationals extend” posts for every Nationals player. Or at least a template. They’re extending everyone.
It does seem that way. Although the players they’re extending are young and have potential. The NL East is going to be very interesting this year and years to follow. Especially this year if they decide to implement the 2nd wild card. That would be awesome
because 30 years old is considered young (?)
Awesome move
Smart move, don’t think it should be for more than 2 or 3 years without some kind of option though
Fantastic move. Hopefully this will stop all of the “Morse and Desmond for Wade Davis!!!”
Morse and Desmond for Wade Davis?
???????? Who said that ???????
Whenever Morse’s name is mentioned.
More like “Morse and Desmond for [insert name of someone else’s star rookie here]”
Morse and Desmond and Harper and Strasburg for Francisco Cervelli!!!
Can the Nats still get Prince then? My first reaction to this extension was no, because he plays OF/1B. After checking their roster, they already have 4 outfielders. Does this move mean that they’re out of the Prince race?
No. Morse can play LF and and they deal LaRoche to someone. Although, I actually think the Rangers are going to land Prince.
Oh. Really?!
Dang the Rangers have more money then I thought. That TV deal they signed is obviously paying off.
Their GM said they are still interested.
Poor Jon Daniels. Scott Boras hasn’t given a player a huge contract yet this year. And Scott Boras needs his money. How on Earth would he survive an unproductive offseason!
The Rangers have the money (TV deal in ’14), but we also have a lot of key guys to re-sign so idk about Fielder.
If the Nats were to drop out of the running, Idk what will happen in the Prince sweepstakes.
The Tv deal doesn’t kick in for 2 more years. So it’s not paying off yet.
If the Nats dont get Fielder I hope the Rangers do, than we can go after Hamilton next year.
Morse is a left fielder, he played first because Laroche was injured.
Ah that explains it. Thanks
Morse plays LF, Werth CF, and RF is still up for grabs
As a Rangers fan, there are a few pieces that the Nats have I would want to work a trade out for (I’m not talking about obviously off-limits guys). If I were the Rangers I would maybe even bring Nelson Cruz up, just to see what comes of it.
RF is most likely Harper’s when he comes along, and it seems that might be even sooner than we thought.
I doubt Harper starts the year in D.C. though
My point was that they really can’t make a trade for anyone long term there, so likely just a stopgap out there for now.
RF Harper.
I was only able to watch about 2 or 3 Nats games last season. So are the Nats looking to move him to 3B so they can get Fielder? Or is he staying at 1B?
Either way, great move for the Nats. He’s a beast.
Yeah, they can easily move him to third. Can’t even remember the name of that quad A scrub there now.
LF
Back to LF unless they trade for Ellsbury, Granderson, and Kemp.
Morse plays left. He moved to first after Laroche injury. 3rd base?????
Just asking. We don’t exactly get to see alot of Nats games in Texas. I had MLB TV, but only so much time lol.
Right… but I think the point is that Zimmerman is one of the young studs of the MLB and that you should know him regardless of how many games you watch. I’ll excuse the brain fart for now…
Forgot Zimmerman was at 3B. So can you tell me every single player, and their position on every team?
I guess this just proves how underrated Zim actually is.
I just forgot about him for a second. It’s not like i’m unaware of him. I voted for him in the All-Star game a couple of seasons ago.
He is underrated though.
Morse has played 9 games at 3B in his career, 2 of those he started. That would be a fun spring training.
Zimmerman
Sign Fielder and with the addition of Harper this lineup could be deadly
Desmond SS
Espinosa 2B
Zimmerman 3B
Fielder 1B
Morse LF
Werth CF
Harper RF
Ramos C
Pitcher
I would very much like to see that lineup happen.
Maybe if the Rangers do get Fielder, we can go after Josh Hamilton next year.
Move Morse back to 1B?
Yeah if that was the case, I think thats the only thing stopping us from signing Fielder, Morse playing the outfield long term. Because if we do sign Fielder the long term outfield has to be Morse, Werth (CF), and Harper.
There’s a glut of good centerfielders hitting the market after this season. With Morse only getting a 2 year deal I think Rizzo is leaving the door open for a trade if he signs a CF next year.
I’d rather us keep Josh, but if he did leave, i’d rather see him with the Nats.
Rangers are my favorite AL team so I always want them to do well.
This franchise is really impressing me. If they sign Fielder they will be extremely scary. I love how this team is being built through all avenues of acquisition. Strong in the draft, solid trades, and a wallet big enough to make FA splashes.
You can say that again, Go Nats!!!!
Great move. I’m confident that Morse is a stud, but the two-year deal takes away the risk that he was just a flash in the pan last year. Plus they’ll likely have him at a bargain the next couple years, unless he tanks
Since the Nats are in the Buy-Out mode (Gio Gonzalez and now Morse). Maybe they should “Buy-Out” of their contract with MASN and start their own Network.
Lerner has enough money to do whatever he wants. Or even better yet buy the Orioles and re do the contract 50/50 and then sell the Orioles to a compentent owner, unlike Angelos. Mr. Lerner can you do that for us?
The only problem with that is that Angelos would have to agree. Otherwise, as a Nats fan with O’s ties, I approve.
Last year was not a fluke; the man can hit. He never got the playing time before last year and had produced when he had the chance.
He’s 30 this year. One year younger than new and improved Fausto Carmona.
I’m pretty happy the Nats extended Morse. They’ll have no re-morse on that decision.
Oh no you didn’t!
Ugh! He did.
See? That’s the problem with the internet: throwing virtual rotten tomatoes just doesn’t get it done! :p
Morse can rake!
morse is an animal, great move
This was the a good compromise by both parties. For the Nats, it keeps Morse’s 2013 salary down around 6m even if he has a great season in 2012. Arbitration really compensates power hitters so if Morse were to post same numbers as last year he could conceivably earn 8 or 9m for 2013. For Morse, it still allows him to get to FA after 2013 season. Reason I have said prior that he wasnt an extension candidate was because he is not a player who benefits from delaying FA. He needs to get there ASAP to maximize the value of that FA deal. This is a good deal for both, although I would say Morse gave up about 500k to 1m.
Wow! Something positive and not snarky from you. This is one for the books!
That “if” is as big as Fielder in 2008. Strong in the draft…it’s difficult to mess up a top-5 draft pick every year – though some teams manage to do it. They made a nice trade/sign of Gio Gonzalez, but their problem has always been having to overpay free agents to be able to get them into WSH. After just 1 season Werth’s deal already looks like a disaster this side of Jason Bay. I look forward to seeing them sign a couple of people to go with their talented farm system, partially that’s been depleted from the Gio deal, but until they do they’re still a team with a lot of potential that doesn’t have the wins to back it up.
You can take the Expos out of Montreal, but you can’t take the Expos out of Washington.
The advantage for the Nats is two-fold. First, it properly recognizes Morse’s value and gives them a sum certain he will draw in salary rather than the uncertainty that would come with 2 years of arbitration. Second, if the Nats do sign Fielder, Morse is likely the valued commodity that could be moved for a CF’er with Harper taking LF and Werth being moved back to RF. Morse locked up w/o arbitration concerns is likely more attractive in a trade than if he has arbitration rights ahead of him. Toughest part for Nats fans about Fielder is accepting that Morse becomes expendable since he isn’t the greatest long-term solution in LF.
Yeah but Morse asked for $5 million this year and that would only go up next year, its better to just lock him in so he is happy as well.
Morse asked for $5 this year, so it is cheaper for 2 years.
The guy can hit. His contact numbers have been consistent throughout his career, however, the power numbers are not consistent with his career numbers. He did not show signs of any power until the end of 2010.