The agent for Mike Napoli says his client fits somewhere between Victor Martinez and Yadier Molina on the spectrum of baseball’s best catchers, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. In other words, Napoli’s asking price appears to fall in the range between Martinez’s $52MM contract and Molina’s $75MM extension.
"Depending on how he performs this year, he could be closer to Molina or Martinez," agent Brian Grieper told Heyman.
Napoli, who hit two homers in Boston last night, is on track for free agency this coming offseason. He'll earn $9.4MM this year after hitting 30 homers and posting a .320/.414/.631 line last year.
The Rangers don’t appear to have discussed an extension with Napoli recently, but Heyman suggests they offered less than $52MM over the offseason. The 30-year-old is willing to discuss an extension during the season, Grieper said.
If he proves in the first month or two this year that he can repeat last years performance, I think Texas will sign him up.
I doubt it. If he continues to be on pace for an 8.2 fWAR as he was last season, you’d think he’d wait until the year finishes. He could easily grab $100MM+ in the off-season with that kind of repeat performance much like Werth did with Washington, and the Blue Jays smartly avoided with Bautista.
Nap’s playing well so far this season and I don’t see that stopping. I think the Rangers should lock him up and give him fair market value.
Wrong. Outside the Boston game (with the broken Lester and Melancon), he’s been terrible so far in this young season: .125/.267/.250 with 3 walks and 9 Ks. He’s better than that and will, in all likelihood, turn it around. But to say he’s been playing well so far is incorrect.
If that is all he wants, then he should have already been resigned.
” but Heyman suggests they offered less than $52MM over the offseason.”
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out then.
5 years/$65MM seems fair. It might be a slight underpay now, but the dude is destined for the DH position, so with that in mind he won’t be making too much in the latter part of the contract.
I think he gets 3/$52M somewhere if he repeats 2011. Maybe the Dodgers, although I imagine the Dodgers are more into Miguel Montero.
The Yankees could be interested as he could move to DH if Gary Sanchez proves ready before 2016.
I get the sense the Yanks would rather re-sign a guy like Swisher for those years because of his versatility (OF/1B/DH) as opposed to Napoli who is destined for the DH or 1B and probably can’t be converted.
Everyone is suggesting 5 years on here with Nap eventually being a DH. Hypothetically, you’d be road blocking the line up 4 years from now. If Napoli is a DH you’re asking Beltre (who is older) to still be at 3b. Which for sure blocks Olt (playing Olt at 1b would be wasting his glove). Not to mention Alfaro, Profar, etc are on their way. I’m not keen on Napoli for 5 years… MAYBE 4 at the right price.
That’s true. If we all assume he’ll be a DH by the 4th or 5th year then he should probably get a higher AAV but less years. 3 years/$45MM with a club option on a 4th year or something. Given his age and comparable players 5 years seems reasonable, but everybody is resigned to him being a DH eventually.
more than likely beltre eventually moves to 1st, nap if extended DHing and catching, Olt at 3rd and either profar or Andrus traded
wait and see what? yeah he had an awesome year last year and the rangers are waiting to see if he repeats yes but thats weird beause if he does repeat or even build on it he will demand a ton more money and we all know what Nap is…an extreme power hitting catcher he always has been, he gets on base at a decent pace, plays ok Catcher, he bat makes up for he lacking defense, but he has a strong arm and throws out a good portion of runners, and plays good enough 1st to justify playing there every day, lock him up now or he will hit free agency at a time when a bunch of teams have a good amount of money coming off the books