Pirates superstar Andrew McCutchen voiced his desire to spend his entire career in Pittsburgh yesterday, and on Tuesday general manager Neal Huntington told ESPN’s Jayson Stark that the Bucs would explore an extension for McCutchen at the “appropriate time,” though he declined to delve into specifics. Huntington explained that the Pirates would love to retain McCutchen for “an awfully long time,” though he noted that the remaining three years on McCutchen’s deal is a lengthy period of time in its own right. “At the same time, we do want to honor his interest,” the GM told Stark. “And at the appropriate time, in the appropriate way, we will look to see if there is a common financial ground that allows us to build a championship team around a given player. … Any team can basically afford any player. It’s just how do you afford championship-caliber players around that one player.”
Some more notes from around the Senior Circuit…
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich declined to put a timeline on the Rockies’ path back to contention when meeting with reporters today, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. “Why limit ourselves?” Bridich asked rhetorically. “So if I were to come out and say something that’s pleasing to the ear of you, or a fan here or a fan there, and I say, ‘We’re not going to win for X.’ So what? What’s the point of doing that? It’s about people. It’s about process. … Why say something where it’s got to happen X number of months and years in the future, where really a lot of good things can happen this year?” The Rockies have certainly acted as if they believe they can win in 2016 this winter, and Bridich’s comments seem to imply they indeed hold that belief, even if it’s not necessarily an expectation.
- Brandon Morrow tells Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he probably could’ve secured a big league deal elsewhere this winter, as he had “soft offers” of Major League deals from other clubs, but he wanted to remain with the Padres and “wasn’t afraid” to take a minor league deal with an invite to camp. Morrow didn’t specify exactly what he meant with that explanation — verbal willingness by other teams to explore big league deals, perhaps — but he went on to explain to Lin that he thinks highly of San Diego’s training staff, team doctors and strength coaches. He also voiced an oft-overlooked aspect of remaining in one place (or in securing a multi-year deal): “I didn’t want to bounce around, I guess. It’s just the continuity; the doctors knew me since I was injured, obviously. … Going to a new spot, they’d only know what you tell them instead of having firsthand knowledge.” It’s easy to suggest that players should be comfortable on one-year deals, though Morrow’s comments serve as a reminder that there are benefits to the stability of remaining in one place.
- Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall held court with the media on Tuesday and explained that the deferred money included in Zack Greinke’s stunning six-year contract isn’t the start of any sort of trend, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. “It’s not something that we’re going to start doing now,” said Hall of deferring money,” “but in this case we felt we needed to really bite the bullet on this one, with that window we talk about and our big glaring hole.” As Piecoro notes and as Hall implies in his later comments, the D-backs have previously run into problems by offering too many deferred payments and don’t want to start down that road once again.
- The hiring of manager Don Mattingly already has Marlins players buzzing about the upcoming season, writes Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. Mattingly held a closed-doors meeting with the team before the first full workout of Spring Training, and the new skipper wasted little time in getting his players on his side. “I went out to practice [Tuesday] like I wanted to eat the world,” Jose Fernandez told Spencer. Fellow right-hander Tom Koehler said that Mattingly’s address gave him “chills.” Mattingly spoke to Spencer after the speech and discussed the upcoming season, noting that he believes payroll to be a largely overblown component of successful teams, highlighting the Royals’ back-to-back World Series appearances.
That was a long way for Bridich to say “We have no clue.”
He had to go the long way around because he knows he will be fired if he uses the word rebuild. The owners have banned that word and delusionally believe they have a 90 win team. The owner publicly said that the team was a 97 win team in 2013. He was nearly right. He only missed by 23 wins. Boy it sure is interesting being a Rockies fan. On the plus side, we always have October to take vacations or get an early start on Christmas shopping.
Rocktober is no more.
The rockies should trade Arenado to get a big package back
I came in here to say “on other words, I have no idea.”
Bravo.
It always interesting to see the things they cook up in the Rockies front office in order to beat around the bush.
There’s about a less than 1% chance that Cutch stays in Pittsburgh for his entire career. I love Cutch but it’ll never happen. He won’t take another huge pay cut and the Pirates FO won’t pay the market rate for a 32 year old outfielder. It’s more likely that he’ll be traded before his contract runs up than for him to get extended.
You never know. He probably understands the realities of a Pittsburgh payroll. Tampa Bay got Evan Longoria to sign long term. I think Pittsburgh can resign him. One way to make it work would be a slightly below market value deal with maybe 7 years to take him to his age 39 season. Not something you’d want to do but they want to keep Cutch and Cutch doesn’t strike me as someone who is going to chase the last dollar. Throw in some additional unspoken perks like a suite on the road, season tickets, NTC, maybe you make him captain, some decent bonuses for winning awards and honors. Usually if two sides are truly committed to getting a deal done, it will get done.
Cutch doesn’t seem like the type of guy that’s going to chase top dollar. I’m sure he is well aware that if he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, he’s not going to get market value. If the Pirates offer Cutch something like 7/$150 with some differed money, I think he would consider taking that.
Dbags are going to hack two good years of the Greinke contract, after that it will be like dragging around a boat anchor
Maybe. I think he has the potential to change his game when his velocity dips more, though.
Andrew will be 32 going in to free agency in 2018, if you assume cost / WAR is about $5M at that time and that Cutch continues to be an average of 5-6WAR until the 2020 season, you figure he’d be at least worth 25M through that time. but cutch is smart and not greedy..also not stupid either. It seems his legacy is more important than money.. but still wants to get something near his value i would assume.
I say give him a 10 year extension with keeping him through his age 41 season. the first 3 give him 20M/year guarenteed, 4th year 25M next three at 25M as options with high buy outs to make it easier to keep him around Last 3 seasons make player options at 5M or less. with very heavy incentives. We keep him during his prime.. he gets paid closer to market value (though still team friendly except for the buy outs) and if he happens to hit 70+Hrs at age 40 (ala Bonds), he is doing it in Pittsburgh
Probably crazy talk though with players like Meadows one the way up
With Meadows, Garcia and Ramirez all on the way, the Pirates will not be forced to resign Cutch to a Mega Deal. If he can stay healthy, he will command a kings ransom if traded before the 2018 season. Finally, the minor league system is producing and the Pirates can start doing business like the Cardinals do now. You rarely see the Cards trading young top prospects. Rather they trade veterans for more prospects or another veteran to fill the hole in another position. The player traded away is replaced by a top prospect. That is not dumping salary, that is trading smart.
I tend to agree with you, just on the business aspect you trade Cutch next offseason. He alone could return half a dozen young prospects.. but if most are not ‘high end’ almost sure fire mlb starters then there will be a riot in the strip lol.
Personally I’d rather keep him around.. that kind of talent is rare.
Mattingly’s payroll comment would make more sense if the Royals didn’t have more than $40 million in higher payroll than the Marlins