The Marlins have officially announced the extension of second baseman Dee Gordon, meaning he’ll join the organization’s stable of talented, young players under team control for the foreseeable future. The reigning National League batting champion, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will receive five guaranteed years in a deal that comes with a sixth-year vesting option, per the announcement.
Gordon will take home a $50MM guarantee for his age 28 through 32 seasons, according to reports. That includes a $1.5MM signing bonus and yearly salaries of $3MM (2016), $7.5MM (2017), $10.5MM (2018), $13MM (2019) and $13.5MM (2020). Also, the sixth-year option contains a $1MM buyout. If it is triggered — by Gordon reaching 600 plate appearances in the prior season or 1,200 total over the preceding two years — then he’d stand to earn $14MM in 2021 to bring the total value of the contract to $63MM. The contract doesn’t contain a no-trade clause, although the Marlins generally don’t include such provisions as a general club policy.
A former fourth-round pick of the Dodgers, Gordon rated as one of the game’s brightest prospects from 2010-11 but didn’t establish himself early on and soon dropped off of those same prospect rankings. After struggling greatly at the Major League level in both 2012 and 2013, Gordon cemented himself as a regular in 2014 at the age of 26, batting .289/.326/.378 and leading the National League in both triples (12) and stolen bases (64).
That breakout was enough to pique the Marlins’ trade interest, and Miami parted with highly touted left-handed pitching prospect Andrew Heaney as well as versatile utility man Enrique Hernandez, right-hander Chris Hatcher and catching prospect Austin Barnes to land Gordon, fellow infielder Miguel Rojas and Dan Haren from Los Angeles in a 2014 Winter Meetings blockbuster.
Gordon’s first season with Miami went better than perhaps anyone could have expected, as he captured the National League batting crown and posted an outstanding .333/.359/.418 batting line with four homers, 58 stolen bases and markedly improved defensive contributions according to metrics such as Defensive Runs Saved (+13) and Ultimate Zone Rating (+6.4). Gordon made his second consecutive All-Star team in 2015 and also earned his first Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Awards in recognition of his brilliant season. Fangraphs rated his overall contributions at 4.6 wins above replacement and Baseball-Reference rated him at 4.9 WAR.
With this extension, the Marlins will buy out Gordon’s three remaining arbitration seasons as well as two free-agent years, with a vesting option that can extend the deal into what would have been his third free-agent year. That, perhaps, served as a compromise between the two sides, as the Marlins had reportedly been interested in a five-year term, whereas Gordon’s camp was said to be eyeing a seven-year deal. If the option is ultimately triggered, this contract will cover Gordon’s age-27 through age-32 seasons, allowing him to once again hit the open market at the age of 33.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had pegged Gordon for a $5.9MM salary in 2016 — one year after he had earned $2.5MM as a Super Two player. Gordon would’ve been eligible for arbitration two more times after this season, so it’s probably reasonable to expect that his remaining three arbitration seasons could have been worth anywhere from $25-27MM. That would suggest a value somewhere in the range of about $12MM or so on each of his two free-agent seasons, with the third coming at a slightly higher price, dependent on Gordon’s own performance. While Gordon would certainly receive a larger annual sum were he on the open market this winter, concessions are always necessary on the player side of the equation in order to receive guarantees of this nature so far in advance.
The Marlins were well-positioned to add another long-term commitment to their ledgers. Giancarlo Stanton‘s behemoth $325MM contract is, of course, the largest obligation on the books, but beyond that, Christian Yelich and the just-signed Wei-Yin Chen possess the only guaranteed contracts extending beyond the 2016 season.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the signing (Twitter link). Jon Heyman reported important financial details in a series of tweets: 1; 2; 3; 4.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Marlins decided it’s time to compete last week.
Wow I expected a larger contract.
Arbitration.
It’s almost more than his father made his entire career…..
Different times, different amounts of money
That’s going to be a bargain. Good to see them building a team around Gordon/Stanton and not wasting prime years… I figured they’d be dismantling the team.
unlike Gordon’s former team, the Dodgers, who I’m pretty sure will waste Keeshaw’s prime and then he’ll opt out and become a FA
Oh yes, the Dodgers wasting Kershaw’s prime…. Number of teams with $200M payrolls each year? Number of teams to make playoffs every year since 2013? Try trolling harder.
That payroll comes with greatly increased expectations, When you’ve got a $200mil+ payroll, winning only one playoff series in that time feels like “wasting”
sorry but the dodgers need rings to justify that absurd payroll
Everyone needs rings to justify trying to win rings – which everyone is trying to do.
Logic.
Sorry there is a difference between making the playoffs and winning in the playoffs. With the Dodgers payroll you would expect at least one World Series appearance.
They can be dismantled in no time lol
Yelich?? Fernandez??yeah. Dee gordon is a centerpiece. Hes worth less than tom koehler
Steal
Marlins got a deal there.
Alternate headline: “Marlins Promise to Trade Dee Gordon Within the Year”
I bet that happens.
Steal for the Fish, if he declines as quick as some speed guys do, at least they can be off the hook (no pun intended) after his age 31 season.
But i definitely think he provides value the next 4 seasons.
Obviously this doesn’t make them any better in 2016, but as I said yesterday when they signed Chen, IF (and that’s a major if) things break right, this is definitely a wild card contending team. I think Pittsburgh, Dodgers and St Louis are going to take a step back, and Arizona looks good on paper but they traded all their depth away.
The Marlins are still a distant 3rd in their division and are still way worse than the Pirates and Cards. The Dodgers don’t even belong in that conversation as they’re an excellent team that isn’t going to take any steps back at all.
hence why I said “if things break right.” Not saying they are a playoff lock, but they can contend for the spot if the core stays healthy.
St Louis lost Heyward and Lackey to their rival and wont have Lynn next year, even with Leake that’s a lot of lost talent. Dodgers lost Grienke and have not done much to replace a mediocre bullpen last year.
Also, it can be argued that the Marlins are better than the Nationals, who basically have Harper, Rendon and Murphy in their lineup and that’s it
But things would really need to break right. They won 71 games last year. I don’t see a 15 or so game improvement this year, which is what they’d need to contend for a WC spot. There’s only 2 WC spots, and presuming the Mets, Cubs, and Dodgers win their division (just for the sake of argument), they’d still be competing against the Nats, Pirates, Cards, and Giants. Potentially the D-Backs as well.
(Also, and I’m mentioning it only because it’s a pet peeve of mine, ‘hence why’ is redundant. If you write ‘hence’, you don’t need to write ‘why’)
I’m sure your 10th grade English teacher just teared up a little with pride.
A 15 game improvement is possible with a full season of Fernandez, additions of Chen, and Jackson (to some extent). But that would require the team to stick up for the staff. If they can get consistent hitting, and keep Stanton on the field, they could make a run at the division. And we aren’t even touching on the fact they have an improved coaching staff.
As I say, things would *really* need to break right. Even being somewhat liberal with the numbers, if the addition of Chen netted you 4 additional wins (~4 WAR) and full seasons of Stanton and Fernandez got you 4 more apiece, they’d still be only an 83 win team. If they use Jackson as a reliever, that’s maybe another win? If they use him as a starter, that’s negative value.
This isn’t even factoring that every hitter would need to at least repeat their 2015 output, which I don’t think will happen with Gordon, who’s team-leading value was bolstered by an insane first half BABIP (and a pretty unsustainable 2nd half BABIP).
Their pitching is atrocious. They’ve got Fernandez, Chen, and nothing else.
Stanton will have to stay healthy all season
Dude gets hurt(even if freak incidents) WAY too often
The Dodgers will take a step back. Partly because the Dbacks and Giants are so improved. Where as the Cards and Pirates will take larger steps back the Dodgers will only take small ones.
really? The Dbacks and Giants are marginally improved at best and the Dodgers have the added depth and quality to bulldoze their way to a 8-10 game Western Division win, come what may.
I’d say the D-Backs are more than marginally improved with all the great additions they’ve made, and the Dodgers have taken a step back with their patchwork starting rotation beyond Kershaw and still mediocre bullpen. Arizona is my favorite to win to the NL West at this point.
As for the Cardinals, while they probably will take a small step back, their personnel losses are mostly offset just by getting players healthy. Leake and a healthy Wainwright isn’t too far off from what Lynn and Lackey put up last year, and the offense is greatly improved just by getting a healthy Holliday, Grichuk, and Adams back as well as a full year of Piscotty. Not that some injuries won’t still occur, but surely they’ll have better luck in that regard than they did last year.
Another guy falling for off season hype. While I agree with you that AZ improved this off season but to call them favorites to win the west is a joke. LA and SF are easily better teams right now and have to prove that they’re contenders first. Anyone remember SD last year? They won the off season and finished in last place.
My rival team has taken a big step back with a patched up x.
While my teams loss’s will be offset by health and improvement from younger players
Replacing Hudson and Lincecum with Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija is, by most people’s definition, much more than a marginal improvement.
And for what it’s worth, what the Dodgers have built is a nice oceanfront house, built on the sand.
Nice team, lots of potential, but a lot of risk as well.
Maeda is a nice add, but you don’t know what you have just yet.
Ryu is a wild card (luckily there is some depth at SP).
Do you have 1st half Joc Pederson or 2nd half Joc Pederson?
Is Chase Utley/Kike Hernandez an improvement over Howie Kendrick?
Can Puig get his act together?
The bullpen is still full of question marks.
Kazmir was a nice add if you can forget that he’s replacing Zack Greinke, who the Dodgers could have easily afforded.
They could be a very good team, but there’s a lot of risk. Lots of it. Their front office knows it. Dave Roberts knows it. I think even Dodger fans know it.
I wouldn’t call for a runaway just yet.
LA took a step back by loading up rotation depth with mid rotation arms?(something they had none of last season) Vastly improved their farm, and added a potential pen beast in Montas?
Thanks Friedman!
Sarcastically,
Dodgers Fans
Did you read this part:
“Miami parted with highly touted left-handed pitching prospect Andrew Heaney as well as versatile utility man Enrique Hernandez, right-hander Chris Hatcher and catching prospect Austin Barnes to land Gordon, fellow infielder Miguel Rojas and Dan Haren from Los Angeles in a 2014 Winter Meetings blockbuster”
Heaney turned into Kendricks, Hernandez (2nd base) and Hatcher will be key contributors for years to come and Barnes is a solid catching prospect. A great return for Gordon, Rojas and Haren.
.
Listing Hatcher as a “key contributor” is a bit excessive.
He struggled in the first half got hurt and came back and was lights out. I think he will be better this year than last as a whole. He will be the setup guy and pitch really well, maybe not as well as he did at the end of the season but he will still be really strong
Over the last two seasons there are 243 RP with at least 50 innings. Chris Hatcher is top 50 in FIP, xFIP, K/9 and K/BB ratio. He might not be Aroldis Chapman, but he is a solid set up man who would improve any bullpen in baseball.
Your argument would be better if they resign FA second baseman Howie Kendricks. Otherwise they netted one year of him, nowhere near as good as Gordon’s season last year. Meanwhile, the Marlins have Gordon tied up “cheaply” through 2020 or 2021.
Congrats to Dee.
Sincerely,
Dodger Fan
The Dodgers did quite well in that deal. A year of Howie, a draft pick and Barnes (one of their top ten prospects) is a fine return for Gordon, who isn’t very good.
Hello good sir, you must be new to baseball! Let us show you around!
Good rebuttal! Seriously though, Dee Gordon is basically Billy Hamilton with worse defense and a luckier BABIP. It’s extremely hard to be good at baseball when you’re so incredibly awful at hitting for power and taking walks. Gordon will be decent because of his speed and defense, but he certainly isn’t a star unless he expects to throw up .390 BABIP’s every year. Which, hint, he won’t.
Alright, but comparing Dee Gordon to the should-be-a-bench-player Hamilton just because they both have lots of speed with no power is a big reach. Gordon’s one of the better leadoff hitters and second basemen in the bigs right now, and at the very least is worth what he’s being paid.
Then again, given his 5/$50M contract, I’m not really sure that the Marlins are expecting him to be a “star.”
Did you read this part:
“Miami parted with highly touted left-handed pitching prospect Andrew Heaney as well as versatile utility man Enrique Hernandez, right-hander Chris Hatcher and catching prospect Austin Barnes to land Gordon, fellow infielder Miguel Rojas and Dan Haren from Los Angeles in a 2014 Winter Meetings blockbuster”
Heaney turned into Kendricks, Hernandez (2nd base) and Hatcher will be key contributors for years to come and Barnes is a solid catching prospect. A great return for Gordon, Rojas and Haren.
The intelligencia blew it. It happens but to not recognize that isn’t good. Moving Heaney for a rental infielder was as bad as trading for him in the first place
Just bad management all around.
Except Gordon can actually get on base at a decent to good clip to take advantage of his speed. He doesn’t walk much, but his contact hitting makes up for it even with a more normal BABIP. Hamilton would still be in AAA learning how to hit if it weren’t for his speed.
Flash….in a pan….
Tom
He does not walk and a leadoff hitter has to be able to walk. He also lead the league in caught stealing
I just don’t see him hitting over .300 next year and the fact that he doesn’t walk is going to hurt
He also led the majors in hits and you want walks? He isn’t going to walk. Wills and Lopes didn’t walk a lot either. Wish Dee would be traded to the Royals where management and FANS understand speed and constant pressure on the defense. KC wants their hitters to be swinging not standing around trying to work a walk. Looks like “smallball” had a big payoff in 2015 for the Royals.
Dee Gordon brought the Dodgers Howie Kendrick, who is already a free agent, and some fluff pieces.
Never mind that Dee Gordon was quite a bit better than Howie Kendrick last season and would still be a Dodger if he weren’t traded (and would be a vast improvement over Utley/Hernandez).
I am not that high on Dee Gordon, but there’s no way to spin it to suggest the Dodgers did well with that trade. They could probably use Gordon.
Wow what a team friendly deal what a snag!
Man did the Dodgers blow that trade. In fact they blew it twice! First trading Gordon for Heaney, then trading Heaney for Kendrick.
What says they blew it the first time? I agree that Heaney for Kendrick seemed like too much, but no one thought Gordon would go on to win the NL Batting Title. In hindsight, yeah they did bad, but almost everything in hindsight looks bad. I mean one of the big reasons Mike Trout is on the Angels is because the Yankees signed Mark Texeira, costing them a draft pick. The Angels took the Yankees spot and pick Trout. In hindsight that looks bad but not many, if any, people would have predicted Trout to be an annual MVP candidate at the time of the draft.
I was re-reading a 2009 draft preview the other day. (Yes I was that bored.) Most “experts” compared Mike Trout to the great Aaron Rowand in their draft analysis. I initially thought it was just the guy that wrote the preview I was reading, but that comparison intrigued me so I looked at others. Several others, including Baseball America, made the same exact comparison. In my mind that just proves what a crap shoot the draft (and amateur scouting in general) really is. No one knows, they just write with confidence and by the time they are proven wrong most people have forgotten their original analysis and moved on to the new draft prospects.
I can’t help but wonder if, some day in the “not-so-distant-future”…….we’ll find out that Trout was taking some unknown “supplement” that is legal today, but won’t be by then…….and it will explain his “unpredictable greatness” after his repeated comparison to Aaron Rowand before the draft. It’s not normal for a guy to “suddenly be that good” without some sign of the talent showing up earlier in his career. Not knocking on Trout, he’s a great ballplayer………just a bit cynical about the performance level that’s been attained, without the hype.
While the supplement comment could be true, the real reason is trying to predict what a 17 year old kid will become as a 20 something man is very inexact. There are so many variables involved, both controllable and not, that it really isn’t much more than an educated guess.
If you want some insight into the Red Sox scouting process concerning trout check out this rob bradford article about his experiences scouting trout. To sum it up : trout was a right handed, outfielder, from the north east – not a highly sought after demographic. Plus what he had to do to scout him – drive 5 1/2 hours one way, to get to watch one player, play a game in 27 degree weather. (Plus the baseball season is much shorter in the northeast.)
weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradfo…
I’d say they blew it as of right now. But the fact is, we forget to attribute his defensive grow to Perry which is short changing the whole development story. Let’s wait to see what Kike and Barnes become or are flipped for. The overreaction is real. I hope Gordon continues to grow ( obviously not literally), but his skill set didn’t fit the FO philosophy like it or not. Guys with this set don’t age well. I hope he does age well. I remember dodger fans going crazy that Hochevar wasn’t signed turned into Kershaw, not to bad. Can’t just judge a trade on a year.
Awesome deal for the fish. If nothing else if gives his trade value an unneeded boost with such a team friendly deal…
Imagine the pitching prospects he could land if he has another year like last year leading both in average and stolen bases….
10 mil a year for what? Hes like alcides escobar with the bat but doesnt play short. Really isnt great with the glove but his name gives him 2 war a season. Flash……in a pan
He had a 4.6 war season in 2015. It was 2.3 in 2014. Also, Gordon is younger than Alcides and will steal more..maybe MUCH more bases. Gordon might hit a lot of singles but the SB makes up for the lack of multiple base hits.
I don’t know why you’re so interested in selling Gordon short. If you’re a Dodgers fan, you don’t have to do that. There was no way to know Gordon would have improved or regressed from his 2014 season. It was a crap shoot.
L.A. is not rebuilding. Seager Gordon up the middle with J. Turner and A. Gone manning the corners would be better for the Dodgers. The OF is still an issue along with the bullpen.
Seager gordon up the middle??? Did i miss something?
how does the contract max out at $63 million? He has a $50 million contract for five years with a $14 million club option with a $1 million buyout. So Dee will either get $51 million or $64 million, depending whether the $14M option is picked up/vests or not. Is there missing or incorrect information in the article about this contract?
No.
$50MM guaranteed includes the $1MM buyout. If that option is exercised, he’ll get another $13MM.
so the buyout is guaranteed if the option doesn’t vest?
Generally, a vesting option that doesn’t vest converts to a club option. In that scenario, the buyout would be guaranteed, with the team deciding between paying it and picking up the option.
Bargain
He’ll be traded before the July 31st trade deadline. Marlins are a terribly run team, I feel for Marlins fans.