The Red Sox and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia have avoided arbitration by agreeing to terms on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract, the team announced. The deal is worth $2.5MM, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
Saltalamacchia, 27 in May, hit 16 homers and posted a .235/.288/.450 line in 386 plate-appearances for the Red Sox in 2011, his first full campaign in Boston. Once a highly touted prospect with the Braves, Salty has been something of a disappointment as a Major Leaguer, hitting .244/.307/.406 in nearly 1,300 career plate appearances over parts of five seasons, although catchers are known the develop late.
Matt Swartz of MLBTR projected Salty would earn $1.6MM in 2012 through arbitration, so the reported $2.5MM is favorable for the Munsey Sports Management client based on that projection.
Boston's remaining arbitration eligible players are Alfredo Aceves, Mike Aviles, Andrew Bailey, Daniel Bard, Jacoby Ellsbury, Franklin Morales and David Ortiz, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.
Salty needs to be more consistent offensively and raise his batting average this season
Yeah all he needs to do is make better contact, hit for more power, run faster, and play better defense.
Simple enough.
At least he’s not having problems throwing to the mound anymore.
Wasn’t really that bad on D. 16 HR is more than most starting catchers. Catchers arn’t fast and its not really something you can improve much on. So making better contact, pitch selection, and refining his D would be the things he really needs to work on.
Salty was within .5 WAR of guys like Soto, Ruiz, Martin, Suzuki, and Ramos in 100 fewer plate appearances (he was actually higher than Soto an Suzuki).
Yep.. He was not bad all in all. Threw pretty well after the 1st month of the season once runners figured out he was going to get the ball to 2nd base and in a hurry.
how about 500 thousand for every letter in his last name
Start planning the parade!
/every red sox fan last year with minor yankee signings
Salty is not without his flaws but I like his chances of building on his progress.
salty’s d is very good but raiseing his avg and he could be the redsox catcher for a long time
What makes this non guaranteed? It’s obviously not a split contract.
Arbitration contracts by default are not guaranteed. This includes any cases that end in hearings (win or loss). Some teams will guarantee arbitration contracts but it has to be a negotiating point.
For most players it won’t matter as the contract essentially becomes guaranteed after the player makes the team out of spring training. If a player on a non-guaranteed arbitration contract is cut in spring training, he’s given at least 1/6 of the contract in severance pay (and this fraction increases the closer it gets to Opening Day).
Wow, $2.5 mil for SALTY? Well, that’s $2.5 mil less the Sawx have to spend on GOOD players, so I like it!
Typo alert: “catchers are known the develop late”? Switch “the” for “to.”
A possible 500% raise for Ellsbury, yet there’s never a drop in salary if a player doesn’t do squat. And the owners are great businessmen?
By speaking to Pena and Damon.
Swihart is years away if he even sticks as a catcher and Lavarnway.. Most think he will be a backup C at best on the MLB scene and a DH.
Probably should be thinking of others beside those for a quick fix if that is the direction, though I am a big Lavarnway fan.
I can’t wait for Swihart and Lavarnway to mature
Counter what, Salty? Surely you jest.
I have a question MLBTR calculated that Salty would receive $1.6MM via arbitration. If the Sox are so concerned about their payroll and going over the luxury tax why overpay him by $900K? Even if MLBTR was off a bit he was still overpaid. Doesn’t make much sense. But then again most of the stuff the Sox have done since Sept. 1, 2011 doesn’t make any sense.
Now watch they are going to go to the wall with Ortiz over probably a $500K difference.
Whatever I will take a couple small arbitration overpays over Jeters new deal any day.
I think the $900k difference has more to do with the MLBTR projections being off than the Sox overpaying. Both the players’ union and MLB coordinate arbitration values on their side. There are good and bad deals, but there just aren’t arbitration contracts (settlements, not hearings) that are over 50% off the player’s “true” value. The union wouldn’t let a player do a deal that lower, and MLB wouldn’t let a team do a deal that high.
But would you take Crawford’s 7 year $142MM deal that still has 6 years left. If you knew your team couldn’t afford to sign even a halfway decent pitcher for the back end of their rotation. Because that’s what that contract has done.
So, he didn’t have you at all then.
Seeing as how he will prob bounce back yes. The payroll isn’t capped we are waiting for next seasons FA and or a nice arm to become available before we cross the threshold. Jeter is specifically relevant to the Ortiz situation because its a difference of action regarding a fan favorite. Where is Ortiz can still produce but is settling for fair one year rates, the Yanks opted to over pay and extend a player who does not produce knowingly.
To be fair, regardless of what you think of them as pitchers, if Lackey and Dice-K weren’t both out recovering from TJ surgery they wouldn’t even have a place for another pitcher. So unless they should have predicted losing two pitchers, both for more than a year, they Crawford signing can’t really be blamed for the situation they are in.
Keep believing that he will bounce back. Just like you probably believed all last year he would bounce back. Guess what Sox fans were wrong then and there going to wrong in the future. Crawford’s performance over the next 6 years will NEVER justify that $142MM contact. No matter how much you dream.
As for Jeter’s contract rgardless what’s he’s being paid it hasn’t stopped the Yankees from doing something this off season to improve, has it.
I’m not saying they could have predicted it. But they should have had a plan b especially after 2010 and the injuries. It seems like the Red Sox never have a plan b. And yes his contract can and is to blame for the Sox inability to “spend” this off season. He was/is grossly overpaid and that salary IS effecting the Sox ability to do much this year. Because the Sox ownership doesn’t want to exceed the luxury tax threshold. And that contract is a major reason the Sox are at the threshold.
Just stop it..
There is not enough fingers on your hand to point out the horrid contracts the NYY have and the off season is not over yet.. Hankie & Hal have yet to make a cameo appearance everyone has been awaiting.
Your argument that the Crawfords contract is holding us back is based off nothing so keep believing it. Just because we have chosen to stay below luxury tax thus far doesn’t mean we had to or will next season. And Crawfords got a lot better shot than A-Rod at earning his money so…….NAILED.
“salty’s d is” is pulitzer stuff
To John and Leonard – Yet in spite of what each of you believe is a bad contract the Yankees continue to be able to win consistently make the postseason and sign players to improve. Unlike the Red Sox. Maybe they should have saved some of that money they spent of the Liverpool FC to spend on the Red Sox. Enjoy the baseball season gentlemen. It’s going to be a repeat of 2010 and 2011 for the Sox.
BTW, John. I’ll take Hal and Hank as owners any day of the week of John Henry. Maybe John Henry should have hired a GM with some moxie instead of hiring one that Lucchino can control like a puppet on strings. Considering Lucchino threw under the bus the only 2 people (Epstein and Francona) that hade the Red Sox respectable in over 90 years.
They had a plan b, c, and d, but they lost three pitchers at the same time and their backups struggled with injury and ineffectiveness too.
Injuries, injuries, injuries. Thats all it is. Not lack of talent or a problem spending. 2011 off season. Please do not make the mistake of counting us out considering we have a tendency to win rings when you think that way AND we whooped you up and down the field all last season until September. Thanks.
And don’t worry when we make the playoffs or win the division next year I will be here to remind you of how much you underestimated us.