Pirates starter Edinson Volquez is interested in re-signing with the Pirates as a free agent, reports Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 31-year-old righty is also interested in achieving a multi-year deal in the coming offseason.
Certainly, Volquez has made good on the one-year, $5MM deal he signed with the Pirates before the season. He has worked to a 3.15 ERA over 185 2/3 frames, easily his most productive output since his emergent 2008 season. That is a factor in Volquez’s desire to return to Pittsburgh. “I think I signed in the right place with the right coaches,” said Volquez. “They made me a better pitcher this year. So, I’d like to stay here.”
On the other hand, Volquez made clear that he hopes to parlay those numbers into a multi-year commitment. “You always want to sign for more than one year,” he said. “Especially now that I’m 31 years old, I’d like to sign with someone for two or three years and stay a little bit longer.”
It remains to be seen what level of interest the Pirates have in a reunion. Ultimately, if Volquez finds other clubs willing to plunk down a significant guarantee over two or three years, it is hard to see the Bucs beating the market. As stellar as Volquez’s bottom line has been in 2014, he has succeeded despite a middling K/BB rate of 6.3 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9. With a .263 BABIP also playing a role in the outcomes, ERA estimators see little difference in Volquez’s performance as against recent years, when his earned run numbers came out less favorably.
2/16 maybe? Volquez was one of the worst pitchers in the majors last year. Teams are likely going to be wary of what kind of pitcher he’ll be without the Pirates’ coaching staff. A desperate team could offer 3, but Pittsburgh has little reason to.
I agree; Volquez has been solid and then some, but if someone wants to go more than what you’re proposing, shake his hand and thank him for his contributions.
Anything that keeps us from resigning Martin, I’m against. He is priority #1.
Reality is keeping you from resigning Martin. He wants money that your ownership isn’t going to give him.
That may be true, Obi-Wan, but the Pirates should at least make a competitive offer. If he signs elsewhere fine, then we can turn our attention to Volquez and others. But they at least have to make the decision difficult for Martin.
I think they QO him and let him test the market. Other teams will want his defensive prowess and will pay him more than the Pirates will. They should raise payroll so that making him a competitive offer won’t be so difficult.
They should raise payroll so that making him a competitive offer won’t be so difficult.
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I don’t think that’s the way these things work.
It would be if the Pirates weren’t so stingy. The team is in great shape right now. Investing in the future is hardly a foolish idea regardless of what happens with Martin.
Stingy or frugal? I think they’ve been very smart managing their payroll the past few years. Having a high payroll doesn’t guarantee you of anything. (see: Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, Rangers this year). And a low payroll is not the kiss of death (Pirates, Rays, A’s). Pirates’ payroll will definitely go up next year, it’s just a question of how much. And whether Martin is part of that.
You generally win fewer games with low payroll though. People tend to ignore the incredibly long streaks of awfulness that those 3 teams went through, and it seems TB needs to do it again, and Oakland’s farm is absolutely empty now so I think their window may close up within a few years.
True, but the “moneyball” way is how the Pirates have to go. They will never be able to compete with the Yankees, Dodger, Red Sox, etc. in terms of bidding on free agents, so they need to play it safe and smart. One huge mistake like a BJ Upton or Carl Crawford contact can set back the franchise a decade. That’s why I don’t think of them as stingy. They are just being very smart about managing their money.
They’re not being “very smart” about their money. Free agency isn’t all about mega deals. It’s also about supplementary deals and Pittsburgh won’t even spend there. The Pirates have a great core that can get them to the playoffs, but then what? Is that their peak?
Gee, all they did was end a 20 year losing streak, re-energize their fan base, break their attendance record, and become a viable playoff team two years in a row. All with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. If that’s not being smart with their money, I don’t know what is.
Were they a World Series caliber team last year? No. Are they a WS team this year? Probably not. Could an extra ten million have made a difference? Probably. Attendance is up. Best to use the resources you have available to put the best team possible on the field.
Forgot to add, they also have one of the best farm systems in the majors. Plus they offered Polanco a $75M contract earlier this year. That doesn’t sound like a cheap team to me. It sounds like a team that is committed to building internally. And again, you completely miss the point that just having a high payroll doesn’t guarantee you anything. Payroll will go up next year, as it has every year for the past couple of years. But given the economics of baseball which is skewed towards the big markets they can’t dramatically increase payroll. They need to be cautious here. Given the recent track record of Huntington, et al, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t miss the point that having a large payroll doesn’t guarantee anything and I’m not saying they should have a large payroll. I’m saying they should have a “larger” payroll, especially when they’re only a supplementary piece or two away from WS contention.
They’ve done well with their homegrown extensions, but they let glaring problems go unchecked and that’s why the Cardinals are in first and not them.
Pirates’ Opening Day Payroll since 2010:
2010 – $35M
2011 – $46M
2012 – $63M
2013 – $79M
2014 – $78M
In other words, the Pirates have been doing exactly what you are advocating for. Has any other team in baseball more than doubled their payroll in the past 5 years? Perhaps, but not many.
How is not raising payroll at all following a playoff berth what I’m advocating for? If they’d followed that trend, maybe they would have had a legitimate shot at the NL Central.
We could have very easily raised payroll another $15-20M if we had re-signed Marlon Byrd and A.J. Burnett. Byrd is getting $8M a year and AJ about $12M from the Phillies. Instead, we signed Volquez to 1 year @ $5M which turned out to be a great decision. He’s performed much better than AJ and would like to stay in Pittsburgh. Signing Byrd would have blocked Polanco, You could argue that resigning Byrd would have been better than bringing up Polanco in the short term, but in the long term, it was the right thing to do. Plus it gives us the ability to sign Martin long term. I’d rather have Polanco in right and Martin behind the plate than a 36 year old Marlon Byrd.
Who said anything about Byrd? You could have raised payroll in a number of ways, many of which would have been smart decisions. You just brought that one up because it’s not one of them.
Genuine question, but haven’t all payrolls been going up (aside from my Mets, of course)? Saying that few teams have more than doubled payroll is a little disingenuous considering their $35MM starting point. Several teams in baseball have increased their payroll more than the $43MM Pirates have in the last four years. Part of it is the Pirates being aggressive, but part of it is the general trend in baseball.
I agree that when you start at $35M, there is only one way to go, and that is up. But if your argument is that the Pirates are stingy and won’t increase payroll, and I show you the stats that they have more then doubled they payroll in the past five years, then that’s a point in my favor. You have to give them some credit for what they are doing. Even if you think they haven’t gone far enough.
How many other teams started at the 35m mark?
Not many, but that’s beside the point. The reason I quoted the payroll stats was to refute RevMurph’s contention that the Pirates wouldn’t raise their payroll. Clearly they have.
By the way, the reason the 2010 payroll was so low in the first place is because they gutted the team in 2008 and 2009 and built up the farm system. Not as sexy as signing a big name free agent, but a better business decision in the long run, especially for a team operating in smaller market with lower ticket prices and a less-than-lucrative television contract.
Exactly, they broke their attendance record and created some extra revenue with those three home playoff games last year. They can’t compete with the big teams financially but they can invest in the players they can afford that may help them going forward. Harrison and Volquez fit that model. Martin does not due to market value.
They spent on a “supplementary deal” when they first signed Martin two years ago. They also did so with Volquez and Liriano.
Those were deals to fix holes, not really supplementary ones at all.
Martin Franky Volquez, They spend money when they see value.
Right. Also the $6MM/WAR that people like to throw around is different for every team. Pirates don’t get as much return for every win, teams like the Yankees probably can afford to go to $10MM/WAR easily.
I despise the $6 million/WAR argument as it has no practical application.
Heh, notice that the three teams you’ve mentioned under low payroll has not one a WS in the last 20 years.
That’s because baseball’s playing field over the past 20 years has been tilted towards the big markets. Or at least teams with significant payrolls. The pirates will never be one of those teams. But you still have to find a way to compete.
But I don’t get the idea that increasing the payroll overall would make it easier to pay Martin what he wants. It would seem that paying everybody a lot less would make it easier to afford Martin.
I mean, I don’t look at buying a mansion I can’t afford and think, “Boy, I’d really like to have that mansion. Maybe I should buy a yacht and a luxury car, too. Then I’d be sitting pretty and affording that mansion would be a cakewalk in the tea park.”
If that’s what you meant. I might be misunderstanding.
If they had a larger payroll, the notion that they could afford Martin would not be so outlandish. The payroll as it stands now cannot really accommodate a pay raise for him.
It’s not about paying him what he wants, it’s about being able to feasibly give him a competitive offer.
That still strikes me as counter-intuitive. If they had 39 guys on the roster making the minimum, then there’d be more money available to spend it on whoever to fill the 40th spot.
The argument about not tying up a huge percentage of payroll in one player is a lesson about the idea that you need to be careful who you give out the big, long contracts to– not that you should raise everybody else’s pay so that the big, long contract you wanna give out would be a smaller percentage of the overall.
what deal in the off season would make that much of a difference? Resigning Byrd? AJ? would’ve been a waste while i would’ve liked to see them both back there are others playing well enough. Justin Morneau was the only one that probably would’ve made that much of a difference with his solid D and okay at the plate and ended up signing for a steel (at least this year) a suitable deal wasn’t there. While i would like big name players I don’t want to over pay either.
Martin first, they have to atleast QO him not an option but hopefully a 2 year deal with 20-30mil with a 3rd year option with bonuses if he can continue his performance of this year
Edison has been a pleasant surprise, Franky has been on lately though had some rough games earlier, would like him back as well but only if the deal is right and how well Tallion is progressing from Tommy John.
I actually suggested numerous times on this site over the offseason that Pittsburgh should sign Morneau.
A guy coming off 3 lousy seasons. There was zero reason to believe, going into the season, that he’d outperform a Gaby/Ike platoon.
Well Ike wasn’t on the team at the start of the season.
There were plenty of reasons to believe he’d be better than Gaby Sanchez and for the money he signed for in Colorado, it was a risk worth taking IMO.
pay raise he makes 10 million this year, how much do you think a 31 yr old catcher having the offensive season of his career is going to make.
This hurts so much. I so much wanted to keep Martin in NY after his contract was up He won’t be able to repeat this year, but that contract he had was pretty much a bargain. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone overpaid for him now this winter. I don’t see him stayin in Pittsburgh. At a $70MM payroll you can only get so much.
I’m not 100% sure which teams will be in the running. The Dodgers are the obvious one, though his ending with them complicates matters.
They non-tendered him to begin with. They should have kept him around to begin with, not sure if they would go that route again.
I’m skeptical, but that price tag is going to go up by itself and I’d imagine they’d outbid the Pirates.
I agree, Martin is not coming back and the Pirates have some cost controlled pitching so 2/16 even with a vesting option is hardly a ridiculous move for them.
he is top 5 paid now, wrong side of 30 means 3/40 4/50 contracts, The Bucco’s will keep him if the number is around 12. Some team offers stupid money say 14 or over and he will be gone. I say he comes in after McCann Molina and Posey but ahead of Montero
I suggest going after Liriano before Volquez. He’s been a stud all year
That is… not true. He’s been good lately though.
Volquez has it all wrong. He may be having a good year because of the coaching, but his best year came after being traded for Josh Hamilton. He should sign with the Pirates, then request a trade to the Angels immediately.
Um what? How does any of that make sense?
Yeah I’m not sure I follow unless the end game is the pirates give up a solid starter for an often injured recovering addict who would be their fourth outfielder making 25 mil a year
The Bucs need to sign Russel first then Liriano. Not sure how much that is going to cost, I will assume around $28 million for both ($18m for Martin; at least $10m for Frankie) but not sure how much would remain for Edison. If he wants to play here, why not reward him for being possibly the most consistent pitcher in our rotation this year. Gotta give the pitching staff some major credit, they might be in for a nice payday too considering the great work with Frankie and Edison.
you seriously think martin is going become the highest paid catcher in baseball. Over Posey Molina and McCann
Yeah I do actually. Considering what he has done for this team ever since he’s been here, he’s more valuable to this team more than any of those catchers.