SATURDAY: Guerrero has officially joined the Dragons, tweets Hoornstra. His deal is worth $1.3MM and includes $700K in performance bonuses, according to FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).
FRIDAY: Infielder/outfielder Alex Guerrero is nearing a contract with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, according to Sanspo (link in Japanese; h/t J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group).
Last we heard from Guerrero, he was hitting the open market after being released by the Dodgers over the summer. He never caught on with another major league organization during the season, though presumably he at least would have made for an interesting minor-league signing this winter.
Instead, the Cuban now seems likely to head to Japan. He just reached thirty years of age, so he is still reasonably youthful. But the recent returns have not been promising.
Guerrero missed much of the 2016 season with a knee injury, and was dreadful during his rehab assignment. That made it an easy call for Los Angeles to cut him loose, even though that meant giving up on a player who was still under contract for 2017 (at a $5MM salary). The Dodgers will presumably be able to save a bit of that, depending on what Guerrero will receive in Japan, though most of the cash will remain on the books.
All said, the Dodgers didn’t make out very ell on their $28MM investment. While Guerrero wrecked Triple-A pitching, putting up a .323/.357/.598 slash in 266 plate appearances there, he never maintained success in the majors. There were flashes of promise, and some intriguing pop, but he ultimately posted a .224/.251/.414 slash in 243 trips to the plate at the game’s highest level.
That slugging potential surely would’ve warranted more of an opportunity if it weren’t for the fact that Guerrero never seemed to fit in defensively. Billed as a middle infielder upon his signing, Guerrero played third base and left field during his brief time in the majors, though presumably he could again at least be an option at second.
Wow very surprising to me he is going to Japan. Unexpected! I thought he would sign with the Cubs.
Why? He stinks.
Honestly, probably the best move for Guerrero. He thrived in a less pressuring situation in AAA, maybe taking a step into a league in the middle of the MLB and AAA in terms of competitiveness could be good for him. He can try to figure some things out. He’ll only be 31 in 2018, he could still have some kind of a career in the bigs.
The level of racism here from “bigscubfan” is absolutely abhorrent to me. I truly hope the people who moderate this site and its comments remove these posts immediately. I used to come here frequently to have reasonable discussions with people who cared about baseball like I do, but this is beyond the pale. Good lord, what an atrocious human being.
Agreed. Working on it ….
How is what he said in any way racist lmao
The racist posts have been removed.
Yea I’m with elpuerto I’m very lost.
The posts I was referencing have very thankfully been deleted.
Amen.
Thank you very much Jeff. I know it’s a thankless job.
Actually, our readers are generally very kind to me. No complaints.
We do our best to keep things within reasonable bounds of civil conversation, but it is the internet after all.
Looks like the deal is done (via: link to sponichi.co.jp). An official announcement will soon be known in a few days showing Guerrero’s contract details.
I was curious about his whereabouts. He has obvious power but the plate discipline was always such a mess. The Dodgers have been able to paper over bad contracts for a long time (Olivera, Anderson, McCarthy, Arrabuerena) but I wonder how much longer they can make that magic work.
I have to wonder if Guerrero might not have panned out had he not lost a large part of one season and a big part of his ear in that bizarre dugout altercation in the minors.
Arrubarrena was a total loss obviously, though not not a huge commitment by any means, they got rid of Olivera before he cratered, and the lost seasons to injury of McCarthy and Anderson are little doubt at least partially covered by insurance. Either way with the Dodgers’ revenue stream they can afford to take these sorts of chances and then some.
Oh totally. I think they’re still giving money to Matt Kemp and Brandon League. And Kazmir. And strangely enough, they’re still paying Michael Morse and Brandon Beachy.
Kemp and Kazmir for sure, I’d be surprised if they had any differed dollars on League, since his contract was done in 2015. On Morse, absorbing his salary was part of the big 2015 trade with Atlanta and Miami but they are done paying it this year. Now, Beachy, he’s another story. That guy just plain slipped beneath the waves and was never heard from again. He’s actually arbitration eligible this year, so perhaps we’ll at least hear about a non-tender and get a little more of his story.
Thanks. I keep forgetting the 2016 season is over…I kind of forgot Morse was part of that deal. I think Kemp is now being paid by three teams. Beachy is a double -TJ guy so he probably isn’t coming back.
I’m a bit amazed that Kazmir is making 32mm over the next two seasons but 8mm is deferred. And I totally forgot about the money owed Ethier. Ryu is owed 14mm but that really isn’t much. I can’t imagine he’s ever going to pitch again so hopefully that contract had some insurance. Crawford gets 22mm in 2017. Arrabuerena is still owed around 11 million. McCarthy is still owed 23 million.. whew!
They should be done paying Morse, he had a two-year deal that ran through 2016.. Most of the money they owe comes off the books next two years, though. Ethier, Crawford, Guerrero next year then, Adrian, McCarthy, Kazmir, Ryu Arrubaruena, probably Kershaw as well. They’ll have a bunch of cash to play with.
There’s also michael Morse, whatever they still owe on Kemp and Beachy.
Morse is done. Beachy is done.
Essentially the dead money they are paying:
Coming off 2017:(45 against cap, 50M total) Kendrick (5 deferred), Ethier (18, 2M buyout) CC (21), Guerrero (5)
Coming off after 2018:(61M) Gonzo (21.3), Kaz (8M until 2020, but only counts against cap until 18), McCarthy (11), Ryu (7), Arrumbarrena(5), Toscano (2)
Kemp is owed total of 10.5 through 19
Olivera has been paid out but he counts as 4.5 against cap.
So in the next two years there will be $100M against the cap coming off the books. That’s not including Kersh’s money.
Isn’t it odd to think that both the Dodgers and the Padres are paying both Kemp and Olivera not to play for them?
Regarding about foreign transactions by the way, Stefan Romero (link to mlbtraderumors.com), it’s not a 7 figure money deal for him, it was a on a one-year deal worth an estimated 96.4 million Yen (850,000 USD in annual salary), via (link to sanspo.com).
Dude, they should just hire you to cover all the japan and korean movement. Seriously, just give this person a job here at MLBTRADERUMORS covering the over sea movement to japan and korea.
Yea please this guy is amazing at overseas transactions Jeff take note
^^
Romero probably is going to try to revive his career over there and come back like Thames is trying to do, but who knows he could have heard 1 year 96.4 million and just said sign me up not realizing that Yen aren’t the same as the American Dollar.
Actually he could get a job that’s being offered in the comment sections around here for $89 an hour working from home and I think he can choose whatever hours so he’s got a tough choice.
You win.
Best comment all day.
It is official, Alex Guerrero signs with the Chunichi Dragons on a one-year deal worth an estimated 150 million Yen (1.3 million USD in annual salary) along with incentives. Via (link to nikkansports.com)
How do you give a guy less than 250 MLB PA’s to be successful ?
Well, he had a bunch of minor league at bats too. There’s also scouting evaluations. There’s also the fact that he’s 30 and put up a 224/251/414 line in the majors, with 7 walks and 63 Ks in 250 at-bats. None of that was promising.
You can tell pretty easily whether or not he can make that adjustment to breaking balls. He was essentially part of a roster crunch. He had no positional versatility where he could play at a passable rate. His contract also put the Dodgers in a catch 22. He couldn’t be sent to the minors without his consent. So he essentially forced the Dodgers to either leave him on the MLB roster or grant him his FA.
Def his best move (this, Korea, or Mexico)
Doubt we see him again in the MLB to be honest.