The Nationals have filed an interesting affidavit in their litigation against the Orioles (via MASN) relating to the arbitration on the value of their television rights fees, as James Wagner of the Washington Post notes. Seeking to help convince the judge to order the O’s back to a league-run arbitration panel, Washington owner Ed Cohen said of the lack of market-rate revenue: “[W]ithout this added and steady income, the Nationals cannot bring full economic confidence to investments in multi-year player contracts to keep up with the fierce competition for top players — especially when such control over finances is in the hands of a neighboring club.” It’s interesting to see some insight, however vague, into the team’s thinking on the matter, although it’s hard to know just how much impact there’s been in actuality on the team’s willingness and ability to offer contracts to free agents.
Here are some notes on a few free agents (or those who’ll soon formally join the open market):
- Intriguing young Cuban talent Lazaro Armenteros (aka “Lazarito”) expects to have a deal in place within the next two weeks, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. He’s in negotiations with some teams even as he finishes up workouts with others, says Rosenthal. The 16-year-old is seen as an intriguing athlete, though there have also been some less-than-sterling reviews.
- The showcase for Cuban outfielder Alexei Bell will now take place on February 15th in Mexico City, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. The veteran star is hoping to catch on with a major league organization.
- Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun takes a look at the Orioles’ current possibilities for adding an outfielder. Dexter Fowler doesn’t seem to be an option, given the need to punt the club’s top draft pick, but he wonders whether Austin Jackson or a left-handed-hitting platoon option such as David Murphy or Will Venable could be in the cards. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com does the same with regard to starting pitching, providing an excellent breakdown of the internal possibilities and potential targets.
- Free agent reliever Tommy Hunter is still looking for a second guaranteed year, Rich Dubroff of CSNmidatlantic.com tweets. He’s certainly one of the better names left on a slowing relief market, though it might still be a tall order to reach a multi-year pact. Hunter has largely posted solid results since moving to the pen full-time, but struggled badly with the long ball late last year.
- At this point, the Mets are realistically only looking at relievers on minor league deals, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. That makes sense, as the club already had to push a solid pitcher in Carlos Torres off of the roster after signing Antonio Bastardo.
Would have liked the Mets to have done a little more or add better arms to the bullpen. It was their greatest weakness in the post season last year, and really went the cheap route of fixing it. I do praise them for the addition of Cespedes however, They really put themselves in a great position by giving him really a one year contract.
I consider not going 3 or 4 years for relievers wise, not cheap. They are slated to spend over 15M for the last 6 outs this year, and that is not counting Mejia.
So you are saying signing guys like Andrew Miller or acquiring expensive relievers like Craig Kimbrel unwise moves? I’m not saying break the bank on Tyler Clippard, but they desperately need another shutdown arm to Familia. Aside from Familia, who do they have that you can send out each night and have the confidence in saying that the opposition has no chance on him?
Theres not many relievers in general that you can say the opposition has no chance. No current late relief pitcher strikes fear into batters outside of (maybe) Kimbrel, Chapman and Davis.
U can make a case for the o’s back end of the bullpen of oday and Britton
Was Miller available on the market? Looking at the package given for Kimbrel, it would have depleted the Mets farm immensely or taken from the rotation neither of which is appealing.
Bastardo was a nice addition and combined with Reed and Robles gives them viable options for the 19-24 outs of a game.
A handful of relief pitchers in the game are worth the investment. None were available on the FA market this year IMO.
They signed Bastardo, im not sure if you can accuse them of going the cheap route. Also, Clippard was the only guy in that bullpen who routinely pitched poorly in the postseason and he is gone now.
I think a bullpen of Familia, Bastardo, Reed, Blevins, Goedell, Robles and Verrett will be just fine. Especially with guys like Montero and Gilmartin in the minors, Edgin who should be back by May and Colon who may shift to the pen when Wheeler returns around the ASB
Nationals have the 8th highest payroll. Orioles are 17th. Not sure I understand Mr. Cohen’s dilemma.
Payroll is what is spent. What is being argued over is revenue. Not every team chooses to compete by devoting the same percentage of revenue to salaries. Washington simply wants to maintain its revenue stream so it can afford that payroll.
That was what the Nats agree to in order to move to Washington DC. Now they want to take more of what was O’s money first go back to Montreal lol
They had a general understanding as to what their revenue stream would be. Sounds like they want to maintain a payroll that is unsustainable based on the expected revenue, which is really just bad foresight by ownership/front office.
I feel like this is comparable in a sense to the old salary cap argument where owners tried to convince people (mostly uneducated fans) that lowering players cost would effect the ticket prices, amount of homegrown players staying ect meanwhile it was just a money grab for the owners who ended up raising ticket prices and refusing to spend to keep talent regardless of the implications that were made.
The Nationals want extra revenue because rich people like making more money and that’s not going to change the fact they were willing to spend $176M to try and bring a championship to DC last season.
Clippard sucked in playoffs for mets.
Word is he was run down. I’m not a big fan, but I think the still has some upside for a prove it contract.
Was that just a result of overuse?
I would love to see Mr. Illitch sign one more check and add Clippard to the Detroit bullpen.
Pass.
Mets dont need to make anymore upgrades in their pen IMO. If the season began today, their pen would look like.
CL- Familia
SU- Reed
SU- Bastardo
Loogy-Blevins
MR- Goedell, Robles
Swingman- Verrett
Granted the last three are entering their sophomore season and thus unproven, but they all had good numbers and strong peripherals last year. I certainly dont mind the Mets signing some guys on minor league deals to see if anything sticks, but no big trade or Clippard is necessary IMO
The Nats are a joke, and so was Selig for letting it get this far. You made an agreement in order to acquire (read: steal) Orioles territory, and now you want to balk? If you can’t afford these investments at the rate determined by the agreement made, then obviously you have hired incapable accountants who didn’t plan properly.
You’ve already scored an All-Star Game out of Selig’s pity for you, meanwhile he screwed the Orioles out of one. You’re lucky to even exist.
The Nats are far from a joke, and yes Selig is to blame for letting it get this far. The Nats did not steal any territory from anyone. Peter the Bully threatened litigation and Selig appeased him with the sorry MASN deal. The O’s had the all star game after Camden Yards opened. How did they get screwed out of another one? Why should they be awarded another one before other teams with new stadiums get one? I” take the Lerners over Peter the Bully any day.