Email a copy of 'Indians Extend Michael Brantley' to a friend
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By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'Indians Extend Michael Brantley' to a friend
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Rally Weimaraner
Its a fair deal for both sides if he continues to produce 1.5-2.5 WAR a year, if he improves its a deal for Cleveland
Metsfan93
I’d say ~7 WAR makes this an unreal steal for Cleveland, haha.
JaysFan1996
Let’s hope he doesn’t turn into Cameron Maybin
johnsilver
Not likely. Maybin never had any pluses to begin with for us marlins fans who watched him. SD should never, ever have given him more than a couple of years at the MOST.
Brantley is a legit 5 tool guy, where Maybin is another Bonifacio who could field a position, yet couldn’t hit at Bonifacio levels.
Lilstackhustla
Good deal.
AZDbacksfan1
Fair price. But remember, Figgins, Cameron Maybin and other contact hitting defensive outfielders all signed extensions at a fair price.
Tim Valencia
as much as i want to defend cam maybin, i dont consider him a contact hitter.
Matthew Augeri
Fair deal for both sides. The Indians don’t get much of a discount but get a 3 win player for 5 years.
Matt B. 58.
A 3 win player? I hope you’re right but only once has he even had an fWAR of 2.0 or better and never had a 3 win season.
Matthew Augeri
Late reply but I used bWAR instead of fWAR because MLBTR links to baseball-reference player pages.
LazerTown
I don’t think it’s a bad deal, but I don’t think there is really enough value for it to be worth it for the Indians. They are the 3rd smallest metro area that has a mlb team (behind KC and Milwaukee), and whereas Milwaukee REALLY supports their MLB team, Cleveland is typically towards the very bottom in attendance. The last time they weren’t bottom 6 was 2008, when they were 9th from last. This typically results in a $70-80MM payroll. Just like I really disliked the Vargas/Guthrie deals because they are too much of their payroll for filler players. That is not an attack on Brantley, but he isn’t a star, he is a solid but not stellar player. While teams like the Rays have been using their money to lock up great players long term.
Small market teams like the Indians need to look for bargains, not pay market rate.
yes
That’s all they’ve done all Winter is look for bargains. They’re redefining sow silk.
Metsfan93
They ended up with a bargain, in the end, even if it didn’t look like it at first.
Dbacksfan44
Go on the post of the Indians coming close to an extension. AmericanMovieFan came so close to predicting the terms. He predicted 4/24 w/ a $11 million option and a one million dollar buyout
AmericanMovieFan
I called this earlier before the terms were announced! My initial prediction was:
4 years/$24MM w/ a $1MM buyout on an $11MM option.
2014: $3MM
2015: $5MM
2016: $7MM
2017: $9MM
2018: $11MM option w/ $1MM buyout.
Jeff Todd
Ha, do I need to credit you for the scoop? We’ll have to wait and see what the annual breakdown is.
Nicely done!
EDIT: too bad … signing bonus jammed you up on the breakdown, but still a nice get on the option year
AmericanMovieFan
Well, I didn’t want to guess at the signing bonus. Those are all over the map. As I understand it, they’re taxed differently, earned more speedily or something, hence why they’re often so large a portion of the total. But yes, I’d love some credit! Or a job ; )
Nathan Boley
Wow, I saw that prediction. Very close to the actual deal. Good job.
J32
Impressive call!
Jeremy Schiff
Dude hours ago I remember reading your comment and laughing about how somebody actually tried to predict a contract perfectly. Congrats to you my man, nice prediction.
MLB416
I suspect Brantley will earn every dollar.
Sufferfortribe
Only one thing to say: I am happy, happy, happy!
Mil8Ball
Good deal for Brantly but the Indians did OK. Brantly is a pretty average corner outfielder and this deal is paying market value considering it is 3 arbitration years and only one FA year. Not a whole lot of upside for the Indians to not just go through arbitration all 3 years unless he improves his power a lot etc….which could happen as he is still young.
LazerTown
Agree. Isn’t awful, but it is not a great deal by any stretch unless he develops power. Not a fan of it because the Indians are not a big market. If you are going $70-80M payroll you NEED to be finding the bargains, and unfortunately this really isn’t one.
DMiles5149
Not a bad deal. I’d want a little more pop out of a corner outfielder but it’s not like he’s getting paid a ton either. Plus if you’re a good hitter, you’re a good hitter, home runs or not.
UrkillingmeSmalls
Brantley is advanced metrics-defying. You can go ahead and add about 2 WAR on the offensive and defensive end.
Shin_Soo_Choo
The only hope on upside of this deal is if Brantley develops more power; otherwise we are looking at a fairly average deal for both sides. As a Tribe fan, I can say I’m happy that he will be sticking around and hope he can continue his solid showing with the bat and strong outfield arm.
Hoosierdaddy92
That first part sounded like the Indians opinion when they traded you!
yes
Hard to get excited about signing players who would’ve been under your control thru 2016 anyway. Very hard.
Mil8Ball
And the fact its market value.
jarek redman 4
I thought when Milwaukee traded for CC Sabathia that it would be Matt LaPorta who they would miss most. Turns out it was Brantley. Solid player.
Joseph Devito
They are boasting the fact they signed Michael Brantley. Why? Fact is he has been nothing more than mediocre since coming into the league. He is a corner outfielder for a team that lacks a real power hitter. Brantley hit all of 10 homers,has never batted .300 and stole 17 bases. Not good numbers for a corner outfielder. In reality he is one of the reasons this team struggles to score runs. Look at last years stats. Indians didn’t have a player hitting more than 22 homers, no one batted .300 and their pitching had to be near perfect for them to squeak out wins. The front office failed once again this off-season to bring in a middle-of-the-order hitter. So they boast about extending Brantley. Kudos to an ownership who clearly has no commitment to winning.