The Reds announced that they have agreed to extend second baseman Brandon Phillips through 2017. The ACES client will earn $72.5MM over the course of his new six-year contract, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio.
Phillips would have been eligible for free agency following the 2012 season if the Reds hadn't locked him up. Instead, he'll be in Cincinnati through his age-36 season.
Phillips, now 30, posted a .300/.353/.457 line with 18 home runs and 38 doubles in 675 plate appearances last year. He won his third Gold Glove in 2011, and advanced assessments of his fielding confirm he is a strong defender.
This marks the second major commitment by Reds ownership in two weeks. Joey Votto agreed to terms on a ten-year, $225MM extension eight days ago.
The Expos selected Phillips in the second round of the 1999 draft and sent him to Cleveland along with Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon in 2002. Phillips didn't emerge as a star until the Indians traded him to Cincinnati four years later.
The Rangers agreed to a five-year, $75MM extension with second baseman Ian Kinsler last night. Both Kinsler and Phillips approached Chase Utley's record $85MM contract for second basemen without establishing a new record. That challenge falls to Robinson Cano of the Yankees.
Bowden first reported the agreement and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports added detail. Photo courtesy of US Presswire.
Forget about “Year of the Pitcher”. 2012 is “Year of the Extension”.
MLB wives, girlfriends, and mistresses all swoon
great news… i think we are “all in” as they been saying for more then one or two years lol. i dont know about the 6th year but hey i love it. ill be at the game tonight go reds.
Sure were not many there last night.
Seriously, what was up with the attendance last night? I figured it would have been sold out for Cards/Reds and instead there were like 14k people there.
April weekday games are always poorly attended in Cincinnati. The attendance on weekday games does not pick up until school lets out.
It was also a little nippy last night.
Awesome!
where is cinci getting this money? their tv deal isn’t up for a couple years
Same place where the Marlins got theirs…
Well in the Votto deal they said they were holding back some money from revenue sharing/tax just for this.
What made me laugh is the word “some.” I find it amazing that they’ve found all this money. As I said when they finalized the Votto deal, I just hope this doesn’t cripple their franchise in the long run. I like the idea of extending both Votto AND Phillips, but so long as it doesn’t limit their spending via arbitration/free agency.
Which, sadly, it has to right? They are going to be paying these two guys half their payroll until Phillips turns 36. That is a lot of risk to take on as a mid-market team that has also put a solid dent in their farm system via the Latos trade.
It’s already been posted that a lot of the money for Votto’s extension came from revenue sharing funds.
arroyo,rolen and madsen acct. for 25+mil. and wont be back. owners raising paroll to 100m (20m increase) getting extra 10 m from local tv thats 50+ mil coming in the next few years.
Arroyo is here through 2013.
Castellini, like most baseball owners, is a very very very rich man. Big Daddy Lindner could have acted the same way if he wanted to. Most teams could.
Good for the Reds, it’s about time more teams lock up their players. It may limit their payroll flexibility but it also tells the fans they want to win and believe in their talent.
Cam,
I read a few days ago that the Reds were getting the money for the Votto deal from what they had squirreled away from the revenue sharing money they have been receiving.
So, if that is true, Ca$htellini COULD have put more money into the team the last five years but instead decided to save it. This means, instead of scraping the bottom of the barrel to sign guys like Corey Patterson, Paul Bako and Wily Taveras, they COULD have gotten better players, COULD have had more talent, COULD have had better records and COULD have been in contention more often.
As it stands now, Ca$htellini is making a PR splash without taking any money out of his own pocket.
This just makes me wonder if the Commissioners Office had a little talk with the ownership group about how that revenue sharing money was (NOT) being spent. You know, just like a few years ago, when MLB had a little talk with the Marlins about the same problem……
We’ve been told that the League had such a talk with Oakland. I’ve been saying since Votto that they had it with the Reds as well, and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear the KC and Tampa may have also gotten a little nudge.
I doubt the Reds got the talk. They have hovered in the top of the bottom third in payroll, so about 8 teams would’ve gotten the talk before us. It’s not like we were spending like the Pirates or Padres.
While I do think it is important for them to keep Phillips and Votto these also can cripple franchises. Same goes for some of the deals Miami made this past offseason.
Oh yeah, for those who think jersey and other merchandise sales will help cover these new contracts, think again. If I remember correctly (and unless they changed the rules) ALL merchandise sales are put into a pool and then divided equally among the teams.
This means that the Yankees will get just as much money as the Reds from all the new Votto jersey sales.
Glad you’re on the up and up…
And the Reds get as much money fas the Yankees from all the Jeter jersey sales (who in year and year out somehow still continues to have the #1 selling jersey)
Love these extensions… I don’t care about the figures, the bottom line is the Reds have decided not to be pushed around anymore. The less teams that cycle through failed prospects after failed prospects, the better. Now, if Dusty would go away…
Uh, don’t you know? Dusty is Ca$htellini’s guy. Just a few days ago, when asked, Ca$htellini said the Votto extension wouldn’t have any impact on the talks with Phillips about his extension OR the extension with Baker.
Dusty’s fate is going to depend on how they perform this season and his reception by the players. If they miss the playoffs there’s no way he’ll be signed back, but if they make the playoffs there will be a decision to make because, although he makes some really puzzling decisions, the players seem to really like him.
Like letting Arroyo lose the game for himself Sunday, if Dusty would have just went to the bullpen in the 7th, Arroyo would have walked away with a 6 inning 2 run quality start and probably a win. If Dusty could figure out his pitching staff, he’d be a better manager.
“If Dusty could figure out his pitching staff, he’d be a better manager.”
Mark Prior and Kerry Wood agree.
If Dusty could figure out how to not fall in love with (and bat leadoff) Juan Pierre, Orlando Cabrera, and many other guys with embarrassing OBP’s, who don’t “clog the bases,” he’d be a better manager.
At least he finally made the right decision to move Stubbs down the lineup to start out the year. Phillips doesnt have the most glorious career OBP either, but at least he puts the bat on the ball.
The figures are kind of important. If they’re too big you get a triple A team with Votto and Phillips.
I disagree, the mindset is more important than anything. If they let Votto and Phillips go, they’re going to end up with a AAAA team like they fielded nearly every year in the 2000’s. They showed Votto and Phillips this offseason that they are willing to build around them, and that’s what prompted the signings. There’s no way you make these deals without planning to expand the payroll a bit in the future (most of the Votto money is coming from revenue sharing, anyway)
I’m not saying the extensions are bad by any means. Just that the mindset of “ANY MONEY WHO CARES THROW HIM MONEY” is wrong because it can cripple your team going forward. I like the Phillips extension and am cautiously optimistic about the Votto one.
In Votto’s case they didn’t have a choice, if they wanted him beyond next year they had to throw the money at him, and I would much rather take that risk than let him walk or trade him. He’s the most legitimate player we’ve had since Larkin.
I agree that they got Phillips at a pretty good value.
Only reason I don’t complain more about the Votto extension is because they used a lot of the revenue sharing money they got on it.
Bruce, Marshall and Cueto are signed through 2015, and Latos/Leake/Stubbs/Cozart/Mes are all under team control at least that long.
yes, but that doesn’t mean that you way overpay for players. Phillips is an average player, but they seriously gave him twice as much money as they should have between the years and $. Votto is another one….. He is a great player, but there is no need to lock him up for the next 12 years guaranteed money. Especially when he usually averages less than 30 hr, in a small ballpark. They could have gotten away paying him at free agency, tens of millions of dollars less.
this all means that it will be hard to keep these players around once they hit arb/free agency.
Just because we’ve seen all these other guys extended doesn’t mean the Yankees will extend Cano. They have an option on him at a very fair price and two years until he becomes a FA. I’d be surprised to hear about extension talks, let alone an extension, until the off-season of 2013 at the earliest and more likely not until he hits free agency and they get first crack at signing him.
if they can extend his current deal then it helps them luxury tax wise, rather than sign as a free agent. He should be extended regardless, he is a great player, much much better hitter than phillips.
Apparently when it rains it pours applies to extensions these days…
Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon? Jesus.
I know right… Expos dropped the ball there, but they were gone as a team a year later anyways..
Omar Minaya. What do you expect?
I still laugh at this trade, the expos thought they were close that year and ended up fading away, in more ways than one.
As a Pirates fan I love seeing the Reds committing so much money and trading away their prospects.
So you love seeing a supposed competitor lock up its best players? Assuming you are referring to the Latos deal, what have the Reds really lost there? Alonso and Grandal were both blocked by better players.
They’ve traded younger cost-controlled players for an older less cost-controlled player.
They’ve overpaid for players that were at or past (in Phillips case) their peaks.
Now all they need to do is throw a bunch of money at a free agent pitcher and they’ll complete the small-market killer trilogy.
i think the Phillies have shown a way for a team to make money. They approaching luxury tax salary and still make a profit. It shows that if a team believes if they have a strong fan base that will sell out games and merchandise. Then sure they can do it even without a big tv deal. Phillies still dont have a new tv deal for a couple of years but they make so much money from fan support i think they can afford it.
This is about Brandon Phillips, not Brandon Phillies…
Philadelphia is still a bigger market.
Significantly bigger. Not only that, they have a recent ring. That helps a lot.
Another foolish move by the Reds front office. 2 years too long. In 5 years, there’s going to be so much fat on that payroll, they’re going to look like the Cubs.
Too long, and too much per year. Contract fail all around.
he’s already 30 and you sign him until he’s 36? way to long.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but he’s been right around a league average hitter (above average for 2B) for the past five years. Last year was his best all around year, and he’s an awful basestealer (70% career, 60% last year) which is already an overrated stat. Career .272 hitter with decent power and above average defense who’s going to be 32 this year. Assuming normal regression with age, even if he stays healthy I feel like halfway through this deal it’s going to be considered a bad contract, which tells me it should have been a 4 year deal, not 6.
I get that sometimes you have to overpay, but if I was a Red’s fan, I wouldn’t be excited about this deal. (As a Red Sox fan, I’ve seen a good amount of bad Contracts over the years. Sometimes they are obvious like Mike Cameron and John Lackey, sometimes they are exciting but bite you in the ass like Dice-K and sometimes you look at them and say “This guy will probably be pretty good, but I wish it was for like 1-2 less years and a few million less annually like JD Drew. Brandon Phillips looks to fall in the JD Drew category.)
As I said below….KJ accepted arb from my Jays this year because nobody wanted to give him $7 million, even on a one year deal.
And Phillips isn’t as good as Kelly Johnson.
Horrible contract.
Rob – How did you come to that conclusion?
Exact moment you lost credibility.
You seem to be fighting quite a war championing Johnson being better than Phillips. Phillips is certainly more consistent than Johnson, with Johnson’s highs being higher and lows being lower. Johnson being +.022 in career OBP is a good counter arguement to his -.009 in career average, although his OBP last year was pretty bad. dWAR favors Johnson strongly, but UZR/150 favors Phillips strongly. Not sure how to make heads or tails of that.
Johnson’s inconsistencies scare me, which is why I wouldn’t say he is hands down better than Phillips. I would agree though that the difference between the two in much smaller than you would expect considering Phillips trophy case and price tag
All that into account, if you asked me if I wanted to Brandon Phillips at $72.5/6 or Kelly Johnson at 7m going year to year, it’s a no brainer.
(Just out of curiosity, I’m in a fantasy league that scores more sabremetrically than traditional points leagues. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting better each year. In this league, in 2011 Phillips was worth 844.50, 6th amongst 2B to Johnson’s 638.50, 14th. In 2010 however, Phillips was good for 769, 6th overall, but Johnson was worth 948, 4th best that year. I know fantasy points mean jack squat, but it kind of illustrates my highs and lows vs consistency point.)
That is why these two players are not really comparable–KJ has been less consistent–but arguably much better at his highs– whereas BP is coming off a career year before which he was average to above average on a consistent basis.
Production wise in the long-term, you’re probably getting about the same thing. However, I think KJ is obviously the better baseball value right now only because this contract is pretty long and pretty expensive for a 30 year old second baseman.
When was the last time a huge contract was given out to a player with a .322 career obp; was it soriano?
Yes, definitely agree about consistency. Certainly an inconsistent player can be maddening, but is consistency in and of itself an inherent good? BP has shown the ability to steer clear of the really bad seasons KJ has put up. But he’s also shown an inability to put up seasons as good as KJ can either. Here are the best seasons from the two of them, by wOBA:
.377 (KJ)
.363 (KJ)
.354 (BP)
.351 (BP)
.346 (KJ)
.337 (BP)
.332 (BP)
.331 (BP)
.324 (BP)
.323 (KJ)
.316 (KJ)
.306 (KJ)
.239 (BP)
Pretty much what you’d expect. KJ on the ends, with BP in the middle. It’s important to note that BP’s 2011, his best of his career….was not as good as KJ’s top two.
So it seems fair to say that although with KJ you run the risk of a big underperformance that you don’t with BP. But you also won’t get the truly elite numbers that you can with KJ. Whoever you prefer is really probably personal preference. But $6 million/yr MORE for BP then KJ? That’s ludacris.
yep, we are talking about average players, and he is getting $12M per
I guess it depends on what kind of team you’ve got around the guy. If you’ve got all stars up and down the lineup, consistently average is ok because you don’t want to run the risk of having a black hole at the bottom ruining innings set up by better players and giving them less AB’s per game. If you’ve got a team with only a few good players, you’re playoff chances might rest on a a few players like Kelley Johnson having better years. Making the high reward guy more appealing.
All of that is assuming they were making equal money. Like I said before, the contract status certainly makes Johnson the better deal for any team.
THat’s a good point. BP is a great supporting player. Not a star, but he fits in on a team of stars, and the kind of guy every champinoship team needs. You can’t have stars at EVERY position.
But he’s being paid like a star. And he’s not, at all.
i agree a horrible contract, but there have been some people here that seem to think that he is a fantastic player because 5 years ago he hit 30 hr. This is an overpay, and especially with sb if your only stealing at 60-70% you should just stay put. No need to get senseless outs. If you can steal above 80% though its a different story.
My bad, was looking at two different pages and got them mixed up.
check your math … he’s 30 and will be 31 in June.
Is it just me, or are a lot of really bad contracts being given out the last 6 months. $12 million/per for 6 years for Kelly Johnson Lite?
Considering KJ accepted arb because nobody wanted him for $7 million this year? That’s a little….strange.
Dear sweet baby Jesus. The Reds must have found a massive oil field beneath the stadium.
Robinson Cano says “Thank you, Phillips and Kinsler.”
In every full MLB season, Kelly Johnson has struck out more than 100 times. Brandon has only done that once. Not to mention Johnson’s injuries the last 2 years and Phillips’ ability to play thru injuries and be productive.
Phillips brings more speed, more versatility in regards to lineup position, and impact on each game.
Brandon is a great second baseman and is now paid like it.
Strikeouts are just outs. It’s been shown by the SABR crowd that strikeouts do not have any more negative value then any other type of out.
Defensive metrics are still an area for massive debate. But watching them on the field it is very obvious Phillips is a far superior defender than Johnson. Offensively, they’re close to a wash.