The Cubs were scheduled to play the first ever night game at Wrigley Field on this date 24 years ago, but the game was rained out, so it wasn't until the next day that the Cubs officially welcomed night baseball to the North Side of Chicago. Here are today's links, as the Cubs visit the Padres in San Diego…
- MLB executives discussed a possible Mike Trout extension with Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus (link at ESPN.com). Trout could break records as an arbitration eligible player if he continues playing at an MVP level, so it might be surprisingly expensive for the Angels to lock the 21-year-old up.
- Tigers manager Jim Leyland gives president and GM Dave Dombrowski a ‘gold star’ for his work acquiring Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante and Jeff Baker, Chris Iott of MLive.com reports. Leyland’s top priority was a pitcher, so getting Infante in the same trade as Sanchez was a bonus. “When it worked out that we got both of them at the same time, that was pretty good," the manager said.
- The Marlins will be willing to spend this offseason, but they’ll do so carefully, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes. Team president David Samson says the Marlins aim to remain competitive, despite their disappointing 2012 season. “We’re not rebuilding, we’re retooling,” he said. For more of his comments on the team click here.
- The Rockies have some interest in Yorvit Torrealba, who was recently placed on release waivers, Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports (on Twitter). However, it’s not clear how he’d fit on the Rockies with both Ramon Hernandez and Wilin Rosario healthy.
a little early to talk extension with trout
Also, isn’t it technically tampering to discuss another team’s player and what you’d be willing to pay him?
Not really since he’s under team control. If he was a free agent and another team announced they’d be willing to pay him x dollars then that could be seen as tampering.
I think it’s the other way around. It would be a really bad move to announce what you would pay a free agent publicly, but you’re not doing anything wrong. Tampering involves players under contact of another party.
I think CB is right; discussing what you would pay another team’s player is probably tampering. In this case it’s not a particularly big deal because Trout’s under control for so long that by the time he could do anything about it the specifics of the situation would completely change, but I still don’t like it. There’s too much room for mischief.
Nope. They’re giving their opinion. They’ve made no contact with him whatsoever.
Well, if they could get him under contract to something like Longoria (or even double that), it would be the greatest bargain in the history of baseball.
Trout has inner-circle HOF upside.
You obviously didn’t read the article and totally missed the point.
With his time in 2011 and 2012, he’ll have 1+ year of service time at year end, but won’t be enough for a Super Two, meaning two more years at the 500k range and three years of arb. Considering Longoria got 6/17 with literally no service time a few years back, could be a pretty decent pay day for Trout.
It’s hard to speculate where to start and very unprecedented (CarGo closest comparable, but had one more year service time). You figure he’d get a raise in his two pre-arb years to about $2m over those two years. The arb years get tricky. 6, 8, 10? (that’s more than the $23m CarGo got for his three arb years after having two years of service time) That would make the deal 5/26 through his arb years. Maybe throw in an option for a 6th year at $20m with a $4m buyout to make the deal 5/30 guaranteed with potential to be 6/46. Even with the option exercised, he’d still be a free agent when he was 27.
To guarantee him any money is a risk, considering if he would falter, they could always non-tender him – but at the same time, at this pace, he’s looking like a $25m per year guy in his final year of arb.
Did Dombrowski have to “miss recess” for his Cody Ross trade?
I think the Miguel Cabrera trade may have let him back in.
Trout is still 2 years away from arbitration eligibility (he had 83 days of service time coming into this season). He could break records, but I’d want to see more first. Let him earn his raise. Because the Angels didn’t call him up until April 28 or so, he won’t come close to Super Two status next year.