The Nationals have been one of baseball's most active teams this offseason, signing both Edwin Jackson and Brad Lidge in addition to trading for and extending Gio Gonzalez. GM Mike Rizzo doesn't have to worry about the top of his rotation for a while since Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg are under control through 2016, but another one of the club's young starters can hit the open market a year earlier.
Jordan Zimmermann qualified as a Super Two by little more than a week this offseason, meaning he'll be eligible for arbitration four times instead of the usual three. The two sides agreed to a $2.3MM salary for 2012 as our Arbitration Tracker shows, working out a deal before salary figures had to be exchanged. The 25-year-old right-hander broke out last season, pitching to a 3.18 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 with a 39.4% ground ball rate in 161 1/3 innings across 26 starts. His 8-11 record doesn't do his actual performance justice.
Although he has nearly three full years of service time, Zimmermann only has about a year and a half worth of big league starts to his credit. He missed part of 2009 and most of 2010 due to Tommy John surgery, but players do collect service time while on the DL. The injury and subsequent lack of innings kept his salary down this winter, and that will have a trickle down effect in future years since he's starting with a lower base salary.
As our Extension Tracker shows, the typical extension for pitchers with 2-3 years of service time has been in the four-year, $30MM range with one or two club options that buy out free agent years. Jon Lester, Yovani Gallardo, Ricky Romero, Clay Buchholz, Trevor Cahill, and Jaime Garcia all signed contracts with that framework. Zimmermann lags behind those guys in counting stats like innings and wins due to the elbow surgery, though his strikeout and walk rates match up with any of them at the time of their extensions. ERA as well.
A four-year deal for Zimmermann figures to check in a bit under $30MM given his injury history, so perhaps $22-25MM or so. That would cover his four arbitration years, and the club options could come in around the usual $10-12MM based on those similar pitchers. Zimmermann and the Nationals are in a unique position because his salaries are depressed by his elbow surgery, and the team could take advantage of that by signing him long-term at an even further reduced rate.
Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
So underrated. Everyone will know who he is by the end of this season. Nats need to lock him up.
Looks like he still is under the radar, though hes getting more recognition. Cant believe he hasnt been extended yet
man that werth contract was a terrible idea. nothing against jayson, but imagine having that money to play with for extensions of the zimmermans, for strasburg, for harper … even just for better free agents when the team is actually poised to win. theyre building a great club in washington and that money could be put to much better use
The Lerners are one of, if not the richest, owners in baseball. The Werth contract certainly hasn’t hamstrung them by any means. Payroll is still below league average. And if he has a bounceback year (like we’re all hoping he does), it will be well worth it.
payrolls are not determined by owner wealth and one bounceback year from werth will absolutely not make that contract worthwhile
there are dozens of ways to better spend that money; these extensions are just a few of them
No denying extensions are important, but one big contract (whether it pans out or not) will not mean the end of said extensions. I’m confident that both Zimmerman/nns (did I do that right? LOL) will be extended and rightfully so.
For future reference: We just call them the Zimmermen.
Thanks for clearing that up LOL
That would be the Zimmermen(n), wouldn’t it?
Well sure, if you want to get really technical about it. But when you say the Zimmermen, everyone knows who you’re talking about.
The Zimmermales.
They’re in the 7th largest media market, one in which people will flock to a team that wins (Caps weren’t selling out Verizon Center when they sucked), and they’re about to increase they’re TV revenue by a good deal.
Zimmerman and Zimmermann will both get extensions next year if they prove they can stay healthy.
DC is a big market, they can handle a payroll larger than the one they currently have.
that’s true, but it isn’t really responsive to what i said. whether or not payroll can increase, there are many better ways to spend that kind of money over the next six seasons
i’m not picking on the nationals here. the team i root for gave crawford his contract. those are two great players, but two poor decisions. boston had already extended most of its homegrown stars and then some, but how much would they love to have an extra $20M to spend right now?
boston’s no small market and their owners are not poor. the nationals likewise can and will raise payroll and hopefully lock up their young talent too. but philly and atlanta aren’t going away. the mets will eventually come back too, and miami is going to be a thorn every few years
the point there’s a difference between building a playoff team and building a perennial contender for a world series title. when the latter is the goal (as it should be), contracts like the one given to werth generally do more harm than good
No I understood what you were saying and I probably should have addressed this in my first response but I was lazy.
Everyone, Nats management included, knows that Werth will never live up to that contract, even if he does hit for his career averages the length of the deal. That being said, it was a deal the Nationals needed to make show agents and players that the Nationals aren’t afraid to spend money to bring in guys to help improve the team.
Now I’m not saying that makes it a good deal, but if you look at what they did this offseason with not giving a stupid deal to Fielder, not overpaying for Buehrle (lol 4 years 58 million is ridiculous) and locking up Gio Gonzalez in a team friendly deal based on what he’s shown, then its pretty clear that the Werth deal isn’t indicative of how the Nationals FO operates.
which free agents signed after werth would not have signed if not for the werth contract? i don’t think i buy that rationale
i agree about the nationals operations in general; that’s why i commented in the first place. they’re in great shape as it is, but would be so much better off without that deal on the books
Payrolls are determined in some capacity by an owners wealth, you cant say their not. And id be willing to bet that one contract, even one at 20 mil per year, will not keep the Nats and their rich owner (who happens to be old and may want to win more than he wants his money) from extending any of their young players.
In the big scheme of things, that 126 million is a drop in the bucket for the team.
142 million is a drop in the bucket in boston, too, in the big scheme of things. it still matters and it still isn’t a very good use of that money
stu sternberg’s net worth is in the neighborhood of $1B – nothing to sneeze at. tampa’s got one of the best organizations in the league – and no money
the a’s owners have a greater total net worth than the angels’. why aren’t their payrolls similar?
because that isn’t how it works. of the 30 teams, 0 have owners that are anything less than filthy rich. but these are businesses. they operate in the black
Well i guess we agree to disagree then.
“And if he has a bounceback year (like we’re all hoping he does), it will be well worth it”
No it won’t.Jayson Werth at his best isn’t worth that contract.
I agree that Werth wasn’t worth the contract he was given, but DC needed to show that they were willing to put money out there to build a winner. Hopefully signing Werth will be looked back on as a big piece of the beginning of the Nats rise, whether he pans out or not.
They need to extend both Zimmermen.
It is me or Zimmermann looks like he’s in his 30’s?
It’s not just you. And if you think he looks older than his years, you should listen to him talk, or, more precisely, not talk. My best friend says that he comes off as a laconic farmer from the upper Midwest, which is what he is: he grew up in Auburndale, WI (pop 738) on a farm.
He reminds of David Cone in that he looks a lot older than he is, and is a lot better than people give him credit for being.
He is better than people think, don’t extend him so the Dbacks can sign him.
It’s been rumored that old man Lerner wants to see a winner before he dies, which would indicate that the Nats will likely be spending a LOT of money over the next few years. I agree that Z-n and Z-nn will very likely get their extensions regardless of the Werth contract. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Nats are among the top dogs bidding on NEXT year’s free agents.
Nats will never have a better time to lock up Zimmerman then now. Capping him at 160 IP this past year and him never getting close to that in any other year gives Nats good leverage. 4 year deal for $25m with club option for 10m (So, total 5 yr/$35m) would be a really good deal for the Nats. Zimmerman would be hardpressed to pass on that as he would get some real good financial security and it would only cost him 1 FA season.
I think they should sign him to a 3 year deal worth $25,000,000.
I think they should sign him to a 3 year deal worth $25,000,000.
I would sign him to a 7 year 100 million dollar deal.