The Yankees‘ apparent determination not to pay Alex Rodriguez a milestone bonus under his contract if (really, when) he matches Willie Mays on the all-time home run list has been well-documented. But as David Waldstein of the New York Times reports, the financial motivations are even stronger than had previously been realized. New York would be required to pay a 50% luxury tax on the potential $6MM bonus, meaning that $9MM is actually at issue from the team’s perspective.
Here’s more from the rest of the AL East:
- The Blue Jays have placed shortstop Jose Reyes on the 15-day DL with a cracked rib and will recall Jonathan Diaz to take his place on the active roster. As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca explains, the injury was suffered early in the season, and it remains unclear precisely what motivated the move at this point. While it could just be that the club wants Reyes to heal up for a long season, his long list of injury struggles make this a situation to monitor.
- Reyes is not the only area of concern for the Blue Jays, whose reliance on internal options in the bullpen has started to come into question, as Davidi writes. It was a mistake for Toronto not to find an upgrade or two over the winter, he opines, arguing that the current mix of arms has left the club short of reliable options since the rotation, too, has some questions. Manager John Gibbons discussed the matter at some length, noting that the club may be asking too much of young hurlers Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna. The division already looks like it could be a tightly-contested affair all season long, and the Jays’ relief corps is an obvious area for upgrade as the summer approaches.
- Speaking of pitching concerns, the Red Sox rotation has long been an area of attention. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe looks into the team’s league-worst 5.75 starters’ ERA, noting that the club still believes its current options will improve. But as Speier explains, recent history shows that we are reaching a point where it may no longer be reasonable to expect a significant leap forward in productivity from the group as a whole.
- With a competitive division to navigate, the Red Sox front office is set up for a difficult test of its patience, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com writes. GM Ben Cherington hinted that there could be more early trade activity this year, in part because of an increased sense of urgency owing to the spread of talent in the AL East. We have already seen greater creativity in structuring deals over the last year or so, and Cherington at least hints that the destabilization of established transactional patterns could continue. “The old saying was to take the first two months, figure out what you are and what you need to do, and then take the next two months to try and solve your needs and then let your team play for the last two months,” said Cherington. “I don’t think that it has to be that. Every team’s situation is different and has different needs.”
Die hard Yankee fan. Shame on the Yankees.
It was a witch hunt and it still is. #TeamARod
A-Rod took steroids and apologised. Then he secretly took steroids again and got caught. Instead of admitting guilt, he sued everyone.
How is that a witch hunt?
He failed a drug test?
When the evidence is overwhelming, as it was for every Biogenesis “client”, you don’t need a failed test as confirmed by the arbitrator.
Yes, Thats how he made the Mitchell report and his name got leaked and the interview on national tv when he admitted to it and apoligized for lying about it during the Couric interview pretty much adds up to him doing PEDs. Are there still naive gullible people out there who think he was innocent???? The guy admitted he did them. Wake up.
Neither did Ryan Braun for that matter.
Die hard Yankee fan as well. As far as I’m concerned, I dislike every juicer on every team for messing up my enjoyment of the game. I can more easily forgive the older, now retired players, who did it before MLB got serious about enforcement. But a serial cheater–whether he’s in pinstripes, or in any other uniform, does not have my sympathy.
I share your disdain for cheats. I have an even bigger gripe with A-Rod because of his actions with regards to the Taylor Hooton Foundation. Taylor was the HS kid that died from steroid use…A-Rod went around the country for the foundation Taylor’s parents set up, speaking out against PED’s and signing pledges with kids to never use them. All the while he was a client of Biogenesis.
Yeah.. A which hunt.. Which masking agents is arod using now to cover his steroid use.. And which person is going to come forward telling us, he was supplying the idiot this time… And which idiots are going to stand by this lameass when he gets caught… Again.
If you can accuse A-Rod of using a masking agent with no evidence whatsoever the same can be said for every player in the league.
Well I guess one positive note about the Red Sox rotation: it can only get better here on out.
Or can it?
Honestly, I don’t know what’s happened I didn’t pencil them in to be a great rotation but I thought they might be at least decent. I for one think they can be at least slightly below-average from here on out.
I think they can have a starting pitcher ERA around the 4.00 mark. Not great, but it should be enough to allow them to be extremely competitive as long as everything else is as expected.
One guy i really like in the sox’s starting 5 is Joe kelly. Not too sure about the rest of them though.
Kelly has great stuff, but has shown inconsistencies. I like his upside. Of all the guys in the rotation, I feel as though Miley and Porcello are the two whom you can kinda know what to expect. Of course, neither of them have been great so far, but I’m expecting Miley to settle in at a sub 4.00 ERA, and Porcello to be better at around 3.65. The other three can all be good/great too, but whether or not that’ll be the case based on last year remains to be seen.
Leap of faith time Draven IMO. Not sure if you have watched any of Eduardo Rodriquez’s start’s or not, but I am of the opinion to throw the 22yo into the fire when/if someone needs a breather, or is hurt.
Rodriquez has looked amazing in his 3 starts and has been 94-97 sitting so far. Unlike Kelly? This kid throws strikes. Give him 2 starts and see how it goes, he’s not a soft tosser, like Bobby Sprowl brought up late in the season for a pennant start, but a power pitcher with command.
I only thought they’d be average because I let their fans convince me, boy was I fooled. I thought they’d be garbage tho.
Sadly for them, it did not start today. Buchholz out after giving up 5 runs in the 3rd inning. They already bought Mujica in.
I know. At least Buchholz’s FIP is encouraging!
A-Rod doesn’t deserve to even pick up a baseball
Probably not but since theyre playing him and hes been a centerpiece of the offense when they were winning its not fair to not pay him now. They reaped the benefits of a juiced up all star caliber player for years and now its time to pay the piper.
Maybe they could trade him to Texas?
One thing interesting about the Red Sox rotation. The periphials are much better.
Clay has 11.7 K/9, 2.72 FIP, and 2.62 xFIP but a 4.84 ERA
Masterson has 7.9 K/9, 3.48 FIP, and 3.78 xFIP but a 5.16 ERA
Kelly has 10.6 K/9, 3.5 FIP, and 3.05 xFIP but a 4.94 ERA
Also team has a good IF defense and solid defense all around outside of Hanley so they shouldn’t be underperforming the periphials so much.
However FIP and xFIP are not stadium adjusted, playing in Fenway is bound to up a pitcher’s ERA a bit.
Porcello is allowing more fly balls than usual, and when they’re hit, they’re hit far. Peripherals aren’t going to know that batters are simply waiting on his below-average fastball to hit it a long way.
Buchholz can perform better, but peripherals aren’t going to know that he’s a proven mental case on the mound, and when things go bad, they go really bad.
Miley’s just been an unmitigated disaster.
Masterson’s velocity keeps declining, and batters can just tee off his nothing stuff.
Kelly actually looks like he has the most potential peripheral- and eyeball-wise, but he’s never pitched a full season and may simply be a reliever forced by necessity into a starter’s role.
So what’s funny is that Kelly could be Boston’s best starter but is better suited to the bullpen, where they also are in dire need of help.
Boston simply needs a talent upgrade in its rotation and bullpen. Kelly could give them the talent infusion in the bullpen, but then they need even more starting pitchers. That could come from their minor leagues, where there are some rather talented pitchers, but it’s silly to expect much for 2015 from rookie starters. So to contend in 2015, they may need to trade some of those same talented pitchers to get pitchers who will actually be good in 2015, simply in order to get a decent (read: not dominant) rotation, but this sacrifices the future in order to salvage the ugly present. A double-whammy.
No doubt about it, it’s a mess, one that we could have all seen coming had we just looked with a little bit of objectivity at Boston’s pitching staff. They should have just renegotiated Lackey’s insulting contract situation, and not insulted Lester with a low-ball offer, and they would have had a much better rotation than they do now.
FIP is as big a flaw as ERA is. It assumes pitchers are not responsible for any hits allowed (except HR), yet it factors in defensive outs in its equation because IP is a stat used in its equation, and obviously defensive outs lead up to IP. So why should defensive outs count for the pitcher but hits allowed be disqualified?
It’s exactly why I ignore FG WAR for pitchers. It’s based on FIP.
I agree that FIP should be taken in context, but the idea is to estimate a pitcher’s ERA in front of an average defense, not no defense. If a pitcher’s FIP is very different from their ERA, this does mean something, you just have to do a little more investigation to find out whether the cause is defense, poor sequencing, or just BABIP noise. For example, Buchholz has a massive .403 BABIP allowed to go with a poor 59.1% LOB rate. His line drive rate is 17.8% against a career 18.5% rate, so it looks like his FIP is correctly estimating that his ERA should be lower, because he is getting a ton of strikeouts etc.
Realistic Jays and Sox fans knew this about both of their teams going into the season. Anthopolous did almost nothing to upgrade a bullpen that was thin last year and it was further damaged when Stroman needed to be replaced in the rotation by plucking an arm from the pen. Cherrington did a great job of upgrading the bats in Boston but crossed his fingers when deciding not to seek out a true ace to anchor the Sox rotation.
To be fair, Sanchez was never viewed as a bullpen guy… they just put him there last season because he already had ~100 innings in the minors already that season.
They were totally putting him in their bullpen if Stroman didn’t get hurt. Everyone including Gibby said that was where they were leaning before their opening day starter got hurt.
Sanchez has never been able to command the baseball and work multiple times through an order, nor has he had a reliable 3rd pitch.
He’s had a reliever profile for years.
I don’t think the Red Sox move quickly on Hamels or Cueto unless they get indications that other teams are seriously inquiring. Same with the Cards as they will keep an eye on Cub moves. I don’t get the rumors of Astros interest in Hamels.
Hmm, team is winning, and he would boost their rotation. Plus they can afford him. They still have prospects they can trade. Seems like a candidate to me.
Nah, Jay fans criticized me just a few weeks ago after their first blown save. Relying on two 20 year olds to pitch setup and close after not pitching above A-ball is a little to much to ask. I brought up numerous time’s that AA said our bullpen was the reason that we lost in 2014 and he did absolutely nothing to upgrade the bullpen.
Now that same bullpen has 4 blown saves with only 4 converted saves. Which isn’t good considering the starters can’t get past the 6th inning.
As good as castro and osuna are, we need a proven guy for the 9th.
The Yankees and A-Rod should be forced to donate the $9 million to the Nepal rescue effort. A-Rod would be forgiven for his sins in my eyes.
It would be nice if they just agreed to do that. If forced, it loses its luster.
I disagree. While it’s true that such an act done voluntarily would be expressive of great virtue, being forced to to give back (for example in the form of community service) in order to atone for one’s sins is not uncommon, and widely considered a way of making things right. (For example, we often talk of serving a prison sentence as “paying one’s debt to society.” But almost no one goes to prison voluntarily.) Whatever the case, I think it would be an interesting move for an arbitrator to make.
Also, it would do a lot of good, luster or not. And it would make breaking the milestone all that much more important and meaningful.
Just don’t think anyone, including an arbitrator, has the authority to force it. No prison sentence involved here either.
Sooo. Your forgiveness can be bought???? Only kidding. I admire your proclivity towards helping those in their time of need, but why should that money not stay here? After school programs and public schools need to be funded in nyc and I’m sure a donation that large would do wonders for the New York City school district.
It would, but the suffering over there is oh-so-great. One can do more good with less money. A bigger bang-for-your buck, so to speak. Nepali children are just as much citizens of the world as American children.
Alternatively, the money could be donated to numerous other charities, e.g. Against Malaria, Fistula Foundation, etc.
I bet A-Rod already gives a lot of money to charities. But I think it would be really great to see him and the Yankees come together to and give us all a reason to cheer for A-Rod’s amazing accomplishments once again. I would even tune in to Yankees games!