THURSDAY: The deal is official, Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times (Twitter links). Scott will earn $5MM in 2012, and the club option is worth $6MM with a $1MM buyout. The Tampa Tribune reports (on Twitter) that the contract also includes bonuses placed on plate appearances.
WEDNESDAY: The Rays have reached an agreement with designated hitter Luke Scott on a one-year deal with a 2013 option, reports Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times was first to report the near-agreement, and he notes that it includes incentives. Scott is represented by PSI Sports Management.
Scott, 33, hit .220/.301/.402 in 236 plate appearances in 2011, his season cut short by July shoulder surgery. The Orioles non-tendered him last month rather than pay a salary in the range of 2011's $6.4MM figure. Scott told Topkin he expects to primarily serve as the Rays' DH, with some time at first base. If his shoulder is fully recovered, perhaps he can return to the .500 slugging percentage-type power he's shown in the past. The Rays are closest to Scott's Florida home, notes Connolly.
Scott is a late bloomer, having burst onto the scene with a strong half-season for the Astros at age 28 in '06. After the '07 campaign, he was dealt to the Orioles as part of the Miguel Tejada trade. Scott has drawn plenty of attention off the field, particularly after interviews with David Brown of Yahoo and Amy K. Nelson of ESPN.
Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
Best place for him- the Rays have no fans for him to offend.
And who is your team? Don’t say the O’s
Ha ha ha! That’s really funny! Do you write your own material? Because that is so fresh. A joke about Rays attendance!
Dang funny.
I thought the Rays were a classier organization
Guess the Rays might as well forget about winning the World Series this year – since they won’t be invited to the White House next year.
I won’t believe this until I see the actual contract.
I’m gonna wait to see the long-form contract
I don’t want him ruining the Rays’ clubhouse atmosphere… Still, the Rays need some offense.
Why would he ruin the clubhouse atmosphere? He was always well liked in Baltimore. He’s a unique guy and has his own views on things, but that doesn’t make him a troublemaker.
Yeah, dude clearly does not know about Luke Scott except what the national media says. “He says crazy things! Oh no!” He’s great in the clubhouse.
Well in several ways… he’s offensive.
Well played
He won’t contribute much to a team that already has a low offense. Sure, Luke Scott isn’t bad, but he’s no offensive threat. Throw him in the Rays lineup and he adds nothing more but fluff. The Rays need to execute smallball if they want to win, because they won’t do it with power.
Hopefully, the Rays front office has their press release all typed up for when they inevitably have to distance themselves from one of his stupid statements.
Birther.
Is he playing 1b? I don’t see how he is an improvement over Damon at DH, atleast you know Damon is going to stay healthy
Since Russ Canzler is the other option to play 1B for the Rays, I’d be guessing that yes, Luke Scott will be playing 1B.
He was signed to be our DH and to get occasional starts at 1B. We will be resigning Kotchman or trading for one
No Carlos Pena?
Forgot about him.
Bummer. O’s fans will miss you, Luuuuke! Makes so much sense for the Rays. Good cheap pickup.
Rays 2012 champs.
I’m not sure if I should let go of my Damon resigning dream or my Pena returning dream. Scott might be at 1B or DH….
Scott and Pena, although I will miss Damon.
I’d still love to see Pena back with the Rays. I love his defense so much, and I miss those awesome home runs, despite his god awful average and strikeouts.
He made a comment in regards to Obama and his birth certificate.
The Astros should have signed him.
Luke Scott wasn’t signed to make friends, he was signed to hit. Pena or Kotchman are probably going to be the other bat, not looking good for Damon.
I don’t think he’ll have any issue making friends. This was a good if not great signing by the Rays considering who is out there.
I wonder who the other bat is going to be…
Nice signing for the Rays, they really have mastered buying low.
Great pick up. Take a look at his numbers – great OBP and steady hitter. Can he really play 1B?
He is not going to be playing there… That move is going to come in the next 2 weeks.. per Friedman
Racist scumbag. I’m glad that this lowlife is on a rival team so that I can root against him.
Do you have any evidence of this?
How do you know?
Scott will definitely be the DH with either Pena or Kotchman returning or grabbing another first baseman. The Rays put a premium on defense so they wouldn’t be ok with rolling out Scott everyday at 1B. Look for the Rays to go after Pena, Kotchman, Cordero(might not now that we have signed multiple relief pitchers), Juan Cruz, and a free agent catcher(possibly pudge) as the season nears.
Exactly
what do you think this is, a baseball blog?!!!
I can hear Luke Scott from all the way here where I am sitting!
I am free…. I am finally free!
Listening to pitchers or others complain about lack of run support.
The Threat of Dana Eveland being in the rotation.
Being out of playoff contention by June.
He will have the joy of seeing Palm Trees every day.
While the Rays may not sell out every game, the fans that do are loyal and have a good time.Good for you Luke, I am happy for you! You get to leave a sinking ship!
PS Luke Scott may speak his mind at inopportune times, but he’s no worse than Charles Barkley or Manny Ramirez for that matter!
Well he gets to play with a winner
IM lost here. When did Charles Barkley or Manny Ramirez challenge the legitimacy of a US President with no evidence whatsoever?
He made no allegation just asked to see a document you on the hand are make an allegation without any real evidence.
You are incorrect. this is what he said, “I was born here. If someone accuses me of not being born here, I can go — within 10 minutes — to my filing cabinet and I can pick up my real birth certificate and I can go, ‘See? Look! Here it is. Here it is.’ The man has dodged everything. He dodges questions, he doesn’t answer anything. And why? Because he’s hiding something.”
He was also asked, “You don’t think Obama was born in the United States do you?”
He responded, “He was not born here.”
Who cares? Every republican says the same thing.
Fair enough
Really glad to see we have a lot of people on here who know Luke personally and know his thoughts on everything. It looks like the nonjudgmental portion of this site is in the minority. Maybe everyone who hates on the guy should read his article on ESPN that Amy Nelson did.
Just like Adam Jones said in the article:
“”They form opinions on what they see rather than what they know. If you
form your opinion on what you know, you might be surprised.””
Very surprised a team like the Rays would pick up this negative influence. One of their assets seems to be Maddon holding the team together well. Who needs the distractions this clown will bring?
I can almost gaurantee that Luke Scott will fit in great with Rays and Maddon. His personality seems to fit with that team very well.
I don’t think the Rays give a rats behind about the character of a player, unless they are truly toxic i.e. Carlos Zambrano, as long as they produce and are affordable.
He’s a clown because of what he believes in?
i dont care what any of you haters are saying. and i honestly dont care about what type of person luke scott is… but he is going to be a upgrade for the rays. 20 pluse homers is always nice.
Thank Tebow he is not in Baltimore, Even though I know he will do some damage against us, because everyone that leaves does.
Luke Scott as a hitter is not what the Rays need. But they seem to always pull off the reclamation project of the year maybe Luke is it.
I’m going to make this pretty simple and say no matter what his political views are who cares? He’s an average baseball player, they don’t exactly hold that much political sway. I doubt Luke Scott’s opinions on any issue have made even a slightly noticeable difference.
Pena would be a soild cheap option for the rays because he is getting 5 mill from the cubs this year. Scott is a solid buy low option. If healthy he can rake
That 5MM is to be paid his month and is not part of the 2012 payroll. It was deferred money to be paid as part of his 2011 salary. What ever team he signs with will have to pay market value for him, not the league minimum.
Let’s forget about off-the-field stuff, and let’s focus on the move for him and the team:
I feel this is a no-brainer for the Rays. Scott had great career numbers against the Rays. So they signed him out of recognition. If he stays healthy, he can be a 20-30 HR guy.
i am not a birther. and there are a lot of things that i find objectionable about luke scott’s political views, though there are some things he has said that i agree with. that said, i have never seen or heard anything that would prove to me the man is a racist. its such a nasty thing to say about someone and its thrown around so frequently these days- even over the most trivial matters that the charge is becoming almost meaningless anyway. i enjoyed watching him play in baltimore and wish him good luck with the rays. just hope he doesn’t hurt us too bad.
Luke Scott is a proven AL East race-ist.
You say he is not racist, but he takes his cues from and repeats the filth that is created by big-mouth media racists. The public repetition of racist propaganda makes the FOLLOWERS racists too. You cannot plead ignorance if you espouse the same views. Birthers are inherently racists.
Do you know him? No, therefore you can’t say he’s a racist. Everything doesn’t always connect just like that.
You don’t have to know someone to say they are a racist, if they give an interview and say the crap this guy did I think you can make up your mind and call them what they are. I mean by your theory you would not be able to call Hitler a racist because you never met him and no in NO WAY am I comparing Luke Scott to Hitler!!!
What “racist” propaganda? Just because someone doesn’t like Obama does not make them racist. Were the birthers gullible…..yes. But automatically racist….no. It was just people doing anything they could to delegitimize a president they didn’t like or agree with. They are just the right wing version of idiots similar to the left wing crazys that went on for months/years about Bush stealing the election. Again, anything to delegitimize a president they didn’t like or agree with. It was about politics then, and it was about politics with the crazy birthers. Not about race.
I just find it amusing how the ONLY thing the Rays Haters can ever bring up is the lack of attendance. I have news for you..THE FANS of the team are some of the best in baseball. Because there’s a small market with a bunch of cheap retirees living in it does not make us the worst fans…possibly the worst fan base..but those are 2 different things. A bad “Fan” almost kills a fan of another team by trying to beat them to death in the parking lot…a bad fan spits on Cliff Lee’s wife and children and pours beer on them during a playoff game then gets pissed when he signs with another team after the season.. a bad fan throws beer and other objects at opposing teams outfielders, a bad fan pee’s on David Price’s car cause he hates the Rays..We are not bad fans because we have low attendance, we just have less numbers of GREAT fans. BTW..when your team that draws all those fans can actually make the playoffs then you can talk crap cause there aren’t many (if any) that could do what this team does with the resources they have to work with. Lastly if Scott stays healthy and produces he can say whatever ignorant things he wants…there’s been plenty of ignorant athletes that have been great players. I just hope he is the answer at DH we’ve been looking for.
As a Rays fan I completely agree
As a Rays fan I completely agree with everything you said
BRAVO!
unhealthy obsession for DHs with sweet mohawks
I really want to see a truly interesting bit of conspiracy theorizing. I want to see the popularization of the Ozzie Guillen theory.
It goes as such: Ozzie “Guillen” was actually born Osmond Gill to a family of Mormons in the state of Utah. To avoid the baseball draft he was outsourced to Venezuela where he underwent a racial “transplant” and was coached in being “all fiery Latino and all”. Jerry Reinsdorf, seeing is “fiery Latinoness” on a Betamax tape..spit out his Tab and ordered a Sox signing of the Utahzeulan. Cut to years later. Reinsdorf gets wind that Osmond has a younger brother who has undergone the same international transplant…one Carl Gill…..but decides to tuck young “Carlos Zambrano” in with the Cubs organization so he can watch Carl when Osmond and the Sox are away.
Bringing up to date….both brothers have joined the Miami Marlins to be closer to their parents who have retired and moved to South Florida.
As long as he hits, I don’t care if he even says Yankees and Red Sox SUX.
It must be really nice to get a contract based soley on name. I say that because Scott USED to be a productive player. He isn’t a bad player, but he isn’t worth $5 MM either ($6 counting buyout). I feel Damon should have been offered a contract first, then use Scott as insurance. The only advantage Scott has is (besides having 2 first names) more power than Damon. This all coming from a die hard Red Sox fan who loathed Damon for going to the Yankees.
You kinda defeat your own argument when you talk about signing Damon first. That would be a signing for name only again. Damon has declined in BA and OBP for 3 straight years, and saw his OPS dip below .750 last year. He’ll be 38 next year, and realistically his numbers will continue to decline. Scott is risky because of the shoulder, but his low end projections would likely be like last year (low .700 OPS) which would put him comparable to Damon, while his high end if healthy is likely low to mid .800 OPS. I don’t see any realistic expectation for Damon ever to approach those numbers again.
I’m just happy the Pirates didn’t sign Scott
Docks kg
That racist birther hick will fit right in down in Florida. Supposedly he used to throw plantain chips (the look like bananas) at his black teammates in order to let them know “they were acting like an “animal” “. Google Luke Scott + Deadspin