2:05pm: The deal guarantees Encarnacion $29MM, including a $2MM buyout for the $10MM club option in 2016, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Encarnacion will earn annual salaries of $8MM, $9MM and $10MM.
10:17am: Edwin Encarnacion has been traded, claimed, non-tendered and designated for assignment in the last three years. His next three years figure to be considerably more peaceful. The Blue Jays announced that they signed Encarnacion to a three-year, $27MM contract extension. The deal covers the 2013-15 seasons and includes a $10MM club option for 2016.
Encarnacion, 29, was on track to hit free agency this coming offseason. The Wasserman Media Group client has enjoyed a breakout season so far in 2012, with 23 home runs and a .295/.382/.565 batting line through 356 plate appearances. Encarnacion has career batting line of .264/.341/.465 in eight seasons with the Blue Jays and Reds.
Encarnacion is known for his power, not his defense, but he has successfully transitioned to first base this year. He has split his time between first base and DH in 2012, and figures to continue in that role for the duration of his extension.
The deal is roughly comparable to the free agent contracts signed by Michael Cuddyer (three years, $31.5MM) and Josh Willingham (three years, $21MM) last offseason. However, those two players signed on the open market.
Photo courtesy of US Presswire.
Eddy!!!
nice deal
Reasonable extension for Jays
Well…I guess we’re not trading him.
That’s a nice deal for both sides!
With an option.
Good times to be a Blue Jay fan.
Not really.
Don’t like it, jump off the bandwagon.
Aside from not being able to keep any of your starting pitchers healthy, right?
Now that the Giants can take on this salary:
To San Francisco:
1B Edwin Encarnacion
To Toronto:
1B Aubrey Huff
93 pieces of Lincecum’s hair since that was the last time Toronto has won the WS
aubrey huff? lol really? no… really???
obviously a homer. is it that hard to tell, dam(n). . . .
aubrey huff still plays?
Nah, Aubrey is too busy sharing therapy sessions with his old pal Khalil Greene
(this might get me banned…)
I like the deal, if they didnt they might have giving him a 12.5 mil qualifing offer, 50/50 he accepts that. So in eccence they bought 2 more years for 15 mil.
For someone who could hit 35-40 HRs this year, that’s a very reasonable price, not to mention the commitment ends before he gets old.
It kind of reminds me of the Joey Bats deal. Jays signed Bats to a reasonable deal once he went nuts becoming MLB HR champ, taking a chance on a player hoping he keeps it up, and the player gets the financial security. Very similar circumstances with Eddy.
and he can actually play a passable 1B.
he’s actually pretty decent at 1B, its been a nice surprise.
Well he was never called E3
ya it has been a very nice surprise.
E5 could always position himself, move his feet and catch – the man just couldn’t throw! That is the reason why we (the Jays) still have a hole in left field. Love the extension, I’ve told my friends before he could be our Ortiz.
Interesting, but it seems a bit risky. A career OPS of .805, and he only had two years prior to this season where he topped an .800 OPS. Since he’s not good defensively, he’ll be of little use if he doesn’t continue to produce.
He looks to hit 35-40 home runs this year, but he’s never topped 26 in his career.
people said the same thing about bautista’s extension…look how that turned out…risk = potential reward
Any argument here is gonna be Bautista vs. Lind, just saying.
Lind was a good gamble.. he literally had to become one of the worst full time players in the league to make that deal not look good.
He’s made what? 1 error this year at first base? I have no problem with EE at 1st base for the next 3 years.
I take it that you probably haven’t been watching the Jays the last few years. First thing, he is decent at first base. He has more mobility and range then some first basemen in the league. Second, he has been mashing the ball consistently since last June (2011). Third, he has made a noticeable mechanical adjustment that has payed consistent dividends. Fourth, he has been running the bases really well this year particularly for a person with his pop. Fifth, a couple of EE’s down years need to be viewed as negatively impacted by a recurring wrist injury (and maybe the psychological disaster that came with playing 3B). Once you take all of these things into account and you see that he is top 15 in wRC in the last calendar year, then I think the extension looks really great for both sides.
Career stats don’t always tell the whole story; Encarnacion has thrived since being moved from 3B. He has a .296/.366/.527 line when playing 1B or DH, and that development has been evident to any Blue Jays fan watching for the past couple of years.
Great Extension!
This is a really great deal, and this has great potential to be just as good as the Bautista deal. Jays have a solid 1,2,3,4 combo in the lineup for a few years now. Great work AA!
Now go forth and find ye some pitching!
Wow AA is such a ninja!
First part of the King Felix & Justin Upton Trade.Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Most team friendly deal in the league, AA is a Genius..
did i miss anything?
Bautista is the most team friendly deal, but EE is a solid signing, it was going to be interesting if AA would offer him qualifing offer at 12.5 to net a draft pick or not, but that is moot now. If he provides 100 hr over the next 3 years, its a steal.
Jered Weaver has the most team-friendly deal in the league.
Are you saying that Edwin is going to be a part of a deal for Upton or Felix?
The man hasn’t even built a playoff team before let’s hold off on the AA coronation…
Way to confuse everybody.
“Most team friendly deal in the league, AA is a Genius..”
Evan Longoria disagrees
The Rays took into account all the times he would be on the DL, so technically it evens out.
I chuckled
evan longoria reads this website more than any other player in the league, because he is always on the DL
Fans were saying that about the Lind contract, to be fair. But like Lind’s deal, it’s a good gamble that any of us would make.
The Jays have made worse deals than Lind. Lind isn’t even really breaking the bank with his contract, it’s just he played so bad the beginning of this year he barely earned a penny of it. It’s the risk you take, unfortunately all of them won’t work out. But when they do…you’re Jose Bautista.
Yep, that’s my point. You can’t usually judge a contract at the time of its inking (e.g. “bargain”), you can only judge whether it was a worthy gamble. Both EE and Lind’s extensions represent/ed good rolls of the dice.
Yeah, I wouldn’t call Lind’s a bad contact considering the context under which it was signed. I don’t think there were many signs that he was going to tank as badly as he did, and it wasn’t like they threw twenty million or ten years at him. It was a reasonable risk. So is this.
Great deal. Watch him mash with some cost certain future ahead of him!
I marvel at the Blue Jays coaching staff!
There were so many problems along the way with EE and his development. Looky here….they got another player that frustrated his former teams (Jays included!) hitting like everyone thought he could. All the Jays coaches get bonuses!
hitting coaches: A+
pitching coaches: F
Murphy has helped about half of the Jays hitters and had pretty much the opposite affect on the other half.
i would really really want jays to get one of the big 3 starting pitchers to compete
hernandez, hamels or greinke
wandy or garza would do as long as our best prospects arent gone
cooper or gomes is fine
i think cooper or gomes is gone for sure this year (with good trade value) for a starting pitcher
I hope you don’t mean Felix Hernandez, because if we trade him, we’re going to take your entire farm system. I think the Jays will be huge on Greinke and/or Hamels.
Not to mention Cooper or Gomes would be nothing more than a throw in on any Wandy or Garza deal.
Maybe the Jays should focus on pitching for once…
They have been. They’ve been focusing on the fact that they have been brutally unlucky in regards to the rash of injuries to their pitchers.
They have,Your obviously not a Jays fan. They have high upside pitchers is low minors and it will take a couple of years for them to come up.
Prediction: Felix will be going to Toronto. Snider, Lind, Escobar and a pitcher going to Seattle.
Haha, why would the Ms ever do that? Which of those guys will help them when they’re next competitive?
Felix would bring back a far better haul than that. Think Toronto’s best prospects, not the players you think they can do without.
People love to think other teams would want players their current team doesn’t want anymore. Hey! Lets throw in Cordero too, that might ice the cake for the trade.
Toronto’s best prospects are pitchers. Seattle traded their number 2 pitcher Pineda and a B prospect for an overhyped catcher named Montero and Noesi who flamed out in the majors. Hernandez makes 20 M a season which is an albatross contract and when was the last time he won 15 games, let alone 20. Would Seattle trade Paxton, Hultzen, Walker, and Franklin for Hamels? I highly doubt it and Hamels has outpitched Hernandez. If Seattle wouldn’t be that stupid, why would anyone think Toronto is, especially when you see the trades AA pulls off that other Gm’s only dream about. If Seattle picks up 90 percent of his salary, they might get two elite prospects, but they would have to eat most of his salary in the same way teams have to absorb cost to trade players. Greinke has outpitched Hernandez and he too has a Cy Young, but teams will obtain him for 1 elite prospect, 1 B, plus perhaps 2 C class players. Greinke also costs a lot less in salary. Only in Seattle would they want five elite prospects for the same player. lol. Dream on. The best pitcher in the game is Halladay and he was acquired with 1 elite prospect, 1 B prospect and a C prospect. The fans see things like this. For teams to acquire one of their players, you sell the farm to get them. If Seattle wants the same player, they will offer a couple of B prospects and see it as a fair trade. lol. It doesn’t and never has worked like that. lol.
norris, syndergaard, cooper might get the deal done
I hope this isn’t serious, because that’s not even close. Also, Cooper doesn’t really add much their.
More like JPA, Marisnick, Sanchez, and Norris.
yeah not even close.
He’d have to be an average player the next three years to be worth it. He’s got some upside and downside, but “average player” sounds about right.
Fair deal.
average is selling him a bit short, his career OPS is .805, and at 1B he isnt costing you on defense anymore.
He hasn’t met the average OPS for a first baseman even once in his career until now. And that’s with being
Again, not saying he’s not average or above-average now, which makes the deal fair. Just that he’s been a below-average player until now, and you have to take that into account when projecting him into the future. (Which Toronto clearly has, as this deal is paying him like an average 1B.)
apologies, I wasnt thinking positionally. thing is, the average 1B is not what he used to be. wOBA has dropped nearly 30 points since 2009, wRC has dropped 10 points, and OPS has dropped nearly 70 points. and its been a steady decline, not a single season blip. EE’s career numbers are substantially better than what the average 1B has produced during the current downtrend, so he would seem likely to remain that way especially factoring in his current excellent season and mechanical adjustments.
His numbers during the more offense-oriented era are better than the average 1B now, but that’s not really a valid comparison, is it? It does mean that his offense is all the more impressive now, even with the hitter’s park, but you have to compare Encarnacion in 2008 to other 1B in 2008 and so on.
Regardless of my projection of this as a merely-fair deal due to regression, here’s hoping that he repeats this kind of performance next year! I’m a Sox fan, but I’d love to see the Jays really become competitive and make the AL East even more amazing. Plus, I’d love it if he transitions fully from E5, the kind-of-decent-hitting, terrible-gloved 3B to an okay-he’s-still-poor-with-the-glove-but-man-he-can-really-frickin-hit 1B. Stories like that are fun!
Good news for Jays fans, shows they want to contend, now all they have to do is patch up that rotation and they’ll have a very good team. That may be a job that really gets done in the offseason though.
I am a fan of EE, there is a chance of him regressing as there always is, but his bat was very strong this year and came on before the middle of last season as well. 30 HR bat for under 10M, sign me up.
Don’t forget about the 50HR guy they got for under 15M…
I don’t think anybody in baseball gives enough credit to Dwayne Murphy. Four years ago, any team in baseball could have had Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. They were both majorly flawed hitters who seemed to be destined for bench/utility roles at best. When Bautista was with the Pirates, he was a TERRIBLE hitter, especially with RISP. Encarnacion was the same, no patience and a swing with obvious holes in it. Since 2009 when he took over as the Blue Jays hitting coach, Murphy has turned those two into stars. He even turned Rajai Davis into a serviceable major leaguer. I would think any team looking for a manager this season or next winter should seriously make an offer to Murphy.
Rajai Davis is not anything more than he was with the Angels in 2010. He is a serviceable major leaguer, but probably not an everyday OFer.
Rajai played for the Athletics, not the Angels. Definitely a solid player coming off the bench with tremendous speed.
Also, how does that qualify him to be a manager?
he seems to have been very good for a few guys, particularly in the power department, and i like his philosophy on pitch selection and controlled aggression at the plate. other than that, we shouldnt read too much into the effects of a hitting coach.
And to think that’s one Prince Fielder plus another $100 mill…you gotta appreciate both of those deals.
I can’t believe he’s only 28. I feel like he’s been around forever. I really like this deal for Toronto. Even if he regresses some, he is still an above average bat. I think he is legitimate though. His bat was never a question so much as his glove.
Was it the part about Lincecum’s hair that gave it away?
“Assuming”?
Fans were saying that about Lind’s extension, to be fair. But like Lind’s extension, this is a good gamble that any of us would make.
or 3/4 of what Ryan Howard will be making over that same time
He did try, but failed.
I know, that is why I was asking for clarification.
Reading it again, i’m assuming ‘box was thinking that with this deal in place, it signals the Jays may indeed be buyers at the deadline. That’s if they can hang on with the decimated rotation between now and then.
in regards to an extension, what does staying under the radar have anything to do with anything.
He has a much better track record than lind. Lind only had 1 decent year. Edwin has been at least work around this for most of his career except 2009-10. He is having a career year, and if he keeps it up it will be a bargain for the jays.
there’s a reason it’s called a “career year”. Can’t see him being a .900 OPS player consistently. He’ll be worth it if he becomes a .800~.850 OPS hitter
it was a joke
I still don’t follow how this constitutes a pat on the back for AA.. its his player, he signed him to an extension. Applaud or criticize the terms, but the fact that you didn’t hear about it before hand is insignificant
I don’t know of any GM’s who openly operate in the public sphere. He’s just doing his job.
It is the best year of his career. There is a big chance that he regresses, but there is a decent chance that this is real, from a 29 year old. Someone would have given him more money on the open market if he keeps it going all year.
if he hit free agency he would have got around the same AAV but may be the 4th year would have been garanteed.
I’m 29 and playing the best slow pitch softball of my life! so he could be doing the same, but for about 27 million dollars more! and with baseballs, and about 6 days a week more than me.
I had the same reaction to hearing his age.
Some Jays fans embarrass the rest of us, but the comment above yours is quite correct. EE has put up All Star caliber numbers thus far.
You should go on the Jays site more…or Sportsnet. Those places have the worst. Every team has their trolls and unintelligent complainers, but I think MLBTR has the most level-headed people over many other sites.
I don’t even disagree with this
I was not.
By using Jose Bautista as an example, you just lost.
Players regress, it’s a part of the game. Is there a 0% chance that Encarnacion keeps this up? No, it’s higher than that, but the chances are he goes back to being Encarnacion: an above average hitter, but not by much.
my sarcasm metre is off the charts!
If you want to project him to be above-average going forward, good for you. Reasonable people can differ, although I’d say that you might be a bit biased in this case.
I wasn’t saying that he’s been an average player this year. Obviously that’s not true. But previous to this year, he’s actually been a below-average player every year of his career. This year should be weighted heavily, but it’s not the only information we have, and I think most reasonable projections would have him as an average-to-above-average player going forward, especially considering the increased offensive output necessary from a 1B/DH guy to reach average. (The fact that he’s not butchering 3B anymore is a definite plus to his value, of course.)
Point is: he’s being paid like an average player, and he’s probably going to hit that mark and exceed it by a bit, but not by a ton when you regress his current performance towards his career performance, considering this is his only good year.
Fair deal, like I said.
League average since 2005: .265/.331/.420
Encarnacion career (2005~present): .264/.341/.465
And he’d have to be an above-average hitter FOR A FIRST BASEMAN to be an above-average player. The standards are pretty high for 1B.
Still think he’ll be an average-to-above-average player going forward.
Players like Bautista are the rarest of exceptions. You can’t just point to a guy who suddenly starts playing great and say “that’s sustainable, look at Bautista!”. It doesn’t work like that.
Noonereasonableissayingthathe’llregressalltheway,because,asyousay,therearereasonstobelievehisbreakoutisreal.Buthe’slikelytoregresssome,andbeinginjury-pronebeforeisagoodreasontoexpectsomeregressioninjuryproneplayersusuallystayinjuryprone.Butyeah,he’sgoingtobesomewherebetweenhisoldperformanceandhisnewperformance.Doesthatmakeyouhappy?Canwestopwritinginincreasinglytinycolumnsnow?
Dwayne murphy started in 08. lind’s good year was 09 and so was Hill’s
you are highly overstating the importance of a hitting coach.
I think MLBTR needs to increase their site width a bit.
Rediculous statements are ridiculous.
its just common sense.. coaches are there to guide and pass along knowledge, but only to those who want it.
If you don’t want to listen to your hitting coach, you don’t have to, you may develop a reputation but if you succeed that doesn’t really matter..
Same goes with pitching coaches, when you think of success, certainly some of it goes to coaches, but perhaps in more early stages of development.
you can give props to mel queen for roy halladay, but you don’t give a thumbs up or down to brad arnsberg for halladay either way.
if adam lind really felt like the changes murphy was making was effecting him negatively he was well within his right to stop listening to him.