In his column last night, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe discussed several matters concerning the American League East. From a transactional perspective, Cafardo says not to be surprised if David Ortiz asks the Red Sox to break the $20MM barrier in adding a year to his current contract. Here's more from the AL East:
- Early returns on Red Sox outfielder Grady Sizemore are positive, reports Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com. Hitting coach Gregg Colbrunn said that his swing has "all the good things you look for" in spite of his long layoff, while manager John Farrell said that Sizmore has been at "full speed" on the bases and in the field. Of course, notes Mastrodonato, the club has maintained that it is mostly focused on gauging whether Sizemore can maintain his health over a draining season.
- We heard earlier today that the Orioles have approached J.J. Hardy about opening extension talks. From Hardy's perspective, the shortstop tells ESPN.com's Jayson Stark, he still has not heard much about how things might shape up. "I don't know how that will all play out," Hardy said. "We'll see. I'm actually going to meet with my agent. And we're going to talk a litle bit about what could happen. And he'll kind of fill me in … because I don't really know much."
- Rays GM Andrew Friedman covered a variety of topics on the MLB Network Hot Stove show (transcript via Cork Gaines of Rays Index). Friedman said that the club still feels it will be tough to hold onto ace David Price for the long haul, but that its "mindset is to enjoy each and every day we have David here and do everything in our power to continue that relationship." The likely ultimate scenario — a trade — could take any form, explained the Tampa GM, whose assessment of the Price situation reflects the franchise's general operating strategy. "[W]e really can't have any hard and fast rules about anything," said Friedman. "So we have to be really prepared and nimble. The more prepared you are, the easier it is for you to react more quickly when things pop up. And that's what we have to do is to remain very fluid and not ever get into a situation where we have to make a certain move. But to continue to kind of assess the market and figure out when things kind of line up in our time horizon of what makes the most sense for us to sustain success."
- While the Yankees' money surely played a substantial role in landing Masahiro Tanaka, the club did not just rely on making the highest offer, reports Brandon Kuty of the Star-Ledger. With Pacific advisor George Rose leading the charge, the Yanks put together a series of gestures intended to convince him of their longstanding interest in Tanaka and overall experience with Japanese ballplayers.
Absolutely no baseball reason to give Ortiz more than $15M in an extension.
As a Yankee fan I would say Boston has the toughest, least sentimental FO and one of the best. They are smart enough to decide how much Ortiz is worth. I don’t see any DH as a $20+ million player, but…
I just can’t see a team giving up a 1st or 2nd round pick to sign a 39 year old DH. That should limit any extension to the amount of the QO.
Good point but the extra $1 million is really meaningless for the Sox, especially if that’s what it takes to make Ortiz happy.
True, an extra $1M isn’t really a big deal. But wouldn’t he be getting his respect by having it guaranteed before this season? The Sox could just wait until after the season to make sure he performs and stays healthy before making a QO and eliminating his FA market.
They can handle it how ever they want, that’s just how I would approach it.
I hope they guarantee it as soon as possible, no need for distractions. I don’t want them to play hardball with him over a couple million. Hes one of the core players on the team and I’d prefer if he was happy.
I would give David Ortiz a $14 million extension for the 2015 year with bonuses and incentives laced in there so he can earn up to $20 million. The Red Sox have money to spend so that’s not the issue. I just wouldn’t want to give $20 million to a player that would be 39 years old just cause I can afford it.
“Another uniformed person in the Sox organization said, “I don’t think it’s a huge loss because he spent so much time injured.”
Used to be 2 Sox players that spoke anything on their minds regarding players that didn’t hustle, nor show up ready.. Youk and Pedey.. Youk ain’t around anymore…
Money helped but the Yankees did have a lot of incentives that made Tanaka also like the Yankees. For starters, he had already been to Yankees Stadium and met Hideki Matsui in the dugout. Former Yankees like Andruw Jones, Casey McGehee, and Darrell Rasner played on the Championship team Tanaka pitched for. Don’t think Tanaka didn’t know who they played for in the US before coming to Rakuten. The Yankees. Not to mention, Kuroda and Ichiro are Japanese. Money was a huge reason why Tanaka is a Yankee, reading between the lines you see another reason as well. Brand Recognition.
“Money helped”
/post
There was blah-blah … and yadda-yadda …. and etc, etc …. and in the end it was just the most money. If someone else gave him more money, they would have been the ones that had all the blah-blah and yadda-yadda.
If it were LA instead, it would’ve been “Closeness to Japan” “Large Japanese culture” “Hideo Nomo, Saito” “West Coast attitude” blah blah blah. Money was the primary factor.
Or, yknow, it just might’ve been cool that he got a team he wanted to play for to pony up top dollar. Who knows. Neither you nor me is inside Masahiro Tanaka’s mind and can say money was the primary factor.
Actions speak louder than words. It sure looks like Tanaka went for the money.
I could see one additional year at 20 MM. Only one, though. If he wants two years, you tack them on at 15 MM apiece.
Ortiz has already said he is only looking at 1 yr. Red Sox are perhaps the only big market team that does not have a single 20 million dollar player on the books. They are flush with revenue and well below the tax threshold, and their owner has said staying under the threshold is not a important as he had thought it was. Might want to counter perceptions among players that the organization is cheap and not a place you go to make money, but just a bridge to money elsewhere. Give Papi his money and hope a happy contented Papi is as good as a disgruntled and hungry Papi
You make it seem like they have no big contracts or have never had 20 MM a year players. Lester is about to require a massive commitment to keep around, they signed Crawford, Gonzalez, and Manny to 20 MM AAV deals in the past, Beckett got 17 MM AAV, Lackey got 16.5 MM AAV, Pedroia signed for 110 MM total guaranteed, Ortiz has earned something like 95 MM from the Red Sox minimum (52+14+26 is 92, and I think he had a contract prior to the 4/52, or an option, or something)..
Matsuzaka took in over 50 MM from them, Napoli’s current deal affords him a healthy 16 MM AAV, and Victorino currently has 13 MM AAV. Just because they’ve avoided future albatrosses like Ellsbury doesn’t mean they don’t dole out money. They’re up near the luxury tax and would’ve been way closer had Dempster not gift-wrapped 13 MM for them.
Everything pft2 said is true. They have very little on the books after ’14. So what does “Crawford, Gonzalez and Manny” have to do with that? Also, Red Sox were going to be under threshold with or without Dempster. They fell from 4th place in payroll to 5th place for ’14 ($165mil to $152mil). And only 2 teams are probably going over.
His point was about perception of players that Boston isn’t willing to dole out big money. They have a massive payroll, have given out the second most 100 MM contracts in baseball history behind the Yankees, and have given out 10% of the 20 MM AAV deals in big league history. They are clearly willing to do it if the situation is right, and I am nearly 100% sure every agent knows Boston can spend if they want. No player would ever eliminate Boston from their choices. There is no reason to guarantee Ortiz 20 MM for the sake of spending 20 MM on one player.
I didn’t take that from what he said at all. The extension for Ortiz would go into effect for the 2015 season, not 2014. The Red Sox go from 152.6mil in ’14 to 62.6mil in ’15, with a biggest contract at 16mi (for the moment). They also have a lot of young, cheap talent to keep future costs down. Sox could easily pay Lester and Ortiz, with plenty left over.
As far as perception: Red Sox are resisting bad long-term contracts. Lucchino said so a couple of days ago. Red Sox would rather pay a bit more for a shorter-term contract, than get stuck with an aging star. To a player this may create a bad impression, that they are going to be cheap when it comes to extending homegrown talent and force discounts on players who want to stay.
I got the impression he was talking about those things, not what Red Sox have done historically. Hopefully pft2 can chime in and clear up.
Also, where did 20mil for Ortiz come from. Ortiz said just last week “Guys putting up my numbers, they’re making $25, $30 million. I’m not asking for that. I’m asking for half of it.” How do you figure, it will take 20mil to sign him?
From the article. The whole point of mentioning Ortiz in this very article was Cafardo (I think?) mentioning it could take 20 MM to pay for 2015.
A happy Papi is a ro ide d up Papi. Gotta keep him happy if you’re the Sox!
Gesture 1: “Here’s $155 million for you.”
“$155 million for me? What a coincidence, New York’s my favorite city.”
I used to post how Tanaka cared about more than the highest offer when choosing his team. It’s easy to see the Yankees offer and think it was all about the money, but it’s not like they knew what other teams were going to offer. The money is nice, but I always felt that Tanaka would go where he felt comfortable and it sounded like the Yankees pulled out all stops.
Tanaka was a free agent, there wasn’t sealed bids. The agent could talk about whatever he wanted with the teams. Also, all the estimates were in the 120 to 140 (at most) million. So Yankees had to figure their bid was the highest, and by a wide margin.
Cashman said he didn’t know their bid was the highest until a few hours before Tanaka’s decision was made. Casey Close made it so no teams knew what other teams were offering.
He should’ve called me. I could’ve told him that 175mil was more than anyone else was going to spend.
Okay but he didn’t, so there’s no point in making that statement.
It was a joke. Let me repost what I said in my earlier post:
” the estimates were in the 120 to 140 (at most) million. So Yankees had to figure their bid was the highest, and by a wide margin.”
Of course he knew he was highest.
No one knew what other teams offered. Cashman stated this himself. With the way the media blew up the Cubs’ interest no one could have possibly known what range the offers would be in.
And Cashman always tells the truth.
How do you know that they didn’t know what other teams offered? Yankees knew Teixeira’s offer from Red Sox, before they beat it by exactly 10%. Agents are always trying to play one team off another. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be good agents.
Because Casey Close said he wanted to keep negotiations quiet, and Cashman said himself he had no idea he had the highest offer until a few hours ahead of the announcement. I don’t know how else to word this in order for you to understand?
Not sure when Close said that, but that sounds a lot more like keeping it out of media, than keeping bidding private. And again, I don’t believe anything that GMs say to the media. There is incentives in not disclosing everything. Can’t see how you can’t understand that.
He said that on the YES Network in an interview right after the signing. And of course you don’t, I mean you were there weren’t you? I’m guessing since you are implying GM’s are lying, that you were involved in the negotiating process?
$20M+ for a DH(Ortiz) who needs a bus pass to round the bases? Absolutely ridiculous. The Sox have him for the year, so an extension is NOT needed. He’s not going anywhere next year.
It isn’t about where he’s going. Its about being part of 3 WS champions, and retiring here. Pay the man.
From a purely baseball business perspective, no, it is not needed. However, they have revenue and financial flexibility- Ortiz is one of the greatest Red Sox since Yaz, right alongside Pedro, Rocket, Rice, Evans, and Boggs. He’s a Boston legend, and paying him 20 MM for an additional season on his contract is not the end of the world, nor close to it. If it makes this public negotiation process end, I’m all for it.
The 20 m is not the issue. The issue is the precedent. As a matter of fact the only people asking for 20 mil are journalists who never speak without an agenda. Ortiz himself wants one year at 15 and there is no reason to exceed that. If the red sox give Ortiz 20 million it makes pure DH types like Morales worth 15Million and the entire pay scale goes up 25 percent for everyone. At some point that trandslates to our ticket prices going up again.
The counterargument to this is that sentimental exceptions should not set a precedent. Tim Lincecum’s 17.5 MM AAV didn’t mean superior pitchers to him, like Garza and Ubaldo, got 17.5 MM AAV. There is some wiggle room for sentimental exceptions on short term deals. Plus, Kendrys Morales is a shadow of what Ortiz is. Ortiz is 3 times the player Morales is, and Kendrys’ ultimate AAV will probably be in the 1/3 of 20 MM range anyway…
points taken
Regarding Tanaka, in the end it almost always is about the money first, second, and third.
If there is any justice Sizemore will stay healthy this year. His story has to be the saddest of the last five years. A lot of us are pulling for you Grady and here is hoping you get one more chance in the AL.
David Price for
A. (Pick 2) Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller, Jaime Garcia, Jason Motte
B. (Pick 1) Matt Adams, Pete Kozma, Jon Jay, Peter Bourjos
C. (Pick 1) Seth Maines, Kevin Butler