Edwin Encarnacion has seen a number of potential suitors sign alternatives in the past week, as the Astros (Carlos Beltran), Yankees (Matt Holliday), Blue Jays (Steve Pearce) and Rockies (Ian Desmond) have all signed players that project to see time at first base/DH with their new clubs. He’s the clear top bat in free agency, but his market is murky for the time being. Here’s the latest on the former Jays slugger…
- Rangers GM Jon Daniels says the team is unlikely to sign a top free agent like Encarnacion, MLB.com’s TR Sullivan tweets. “I don’t know how else to say it,” Daniels says.
- The Blue Jays don’t think it’s likely they can land Encarnacion, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm tweets. “If there’s a way, I don’t see it. I don’t think Paul (Kinzer) sees it either but we haven’t stopped trying,” GM Ross Atkins says.
- Encarnacion is currently in “wait and see” mode, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). At present, offers aren’t even in the three-year, $60MM range, according to Passan, although he quotes one GM that suggested that Encarnacion is too talented to see his market dip much more: “Teams shouldn’t overplay their hands with him, either. He’s too good for the price to go much lower.”
- The Indians and Rangers are both still talking with Encarnacion’s camp, according to ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link). Both teams have an obvious spot to put a highly productive first base/DH bat, though the price tag will be a significant factor, of course. Cleveland routinely deals with payroll constraints, and while they received a World Series windfall, it’s still difficult to envision them outbidding all other interested parties. And as for the Rangers, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Rangers don’t currently have the available funds to land Encarnacion.
MO grow a pair and sign this guy for 4 years with a team option.
He will never take a team option unless he getting 30 million a year.
Highly unlikely on the signing and on Mo growing a pair.
Cards? Move Carpenter back to second base? Please.
You mean 3rd? They already have Wong and Gryko at 2B.
Omg
Which raises the question- why do we still have Wong? Matheny won’t play him. We’ll never know his potential.
Gyorko will be playing 3rd. Sign EE trade Wong for an outfielder
Why would one believe that the Rangers have payroll issues, don’t they have a lucrative cable deal bringing in $$$?
Yes but is not just about next year. You have Darvish to resign and Lucroy. Payroll right now for next year will be aprox 140 or so. Yu makes 11 right now and Lucroy make 5.25. I see lucroy getting close to 20 and Yu close to 30 so there is an additional 35 million being added in 2018 if you keep both. 3 for 60 is the max I would sign EE for.
But window wise with Yu being a ? On the market and Beltre and Hamels are old. The window is right now coming off of back to back division titles. I’m not sure we have 2-3 years to even worry about
Was actually having a conversation with a buddy the other day about the balance of going for it and keeping an eye on the future. Part of me would have been fine shipping Mazara and Profar plus a piece or two more for Sale, signing EE, trading for Billy Hamilton (got to watch him play once and man he is worth going to a game to watch), and going with Gomez in left. It always seems these past couple of years we are just a player or two away as while JD isn’t afraid to trade parts of the farm, he won’t really go for broke.
Where did you get those figures? 30 and 20. You’re smoking crack or dumb
Darvish is one year removed from tommy John. He’s lucky to get 20. And lucroy will probably get Russell Martin figures.
Here is my thinking ~
Darvish in 17 games this past year with coming back from TJ pitched to a tune of 2.5 war in 17 games. He will only get better this next year. he had a 3.2 war in 22 games in ’14 and 5.8 in a full season in ’13. His two partial seasons would equate to around a 5 war season and he was hurt. Assuming he comes fully back this next year, which most do after TJ surgery, he will put up close to a 6 war season again and somebody will pay him 6-150 to 6-180 for an AAV of 25-30. Greinke only had one year with a war greater than 5, granted it was a 9.3 and at the absolute right time, Same with Price (who can’t win in the post season) and they were both able to sign for over $30m AAV each. So yes, if Darvish makes it to free agency he is fully in line for a contract around $30m per. And look at lester, his 4 years before his big contract had his highest season at 3 war. He signed a 6 yr 155.
As for Lucroy, he was second this past year as far as catchers per war with a 3.8, hurt in ’15 and had a 1, 6.7 in ’14 and 3.1 in ’13. He handles a good staff and athe scarcity of the position makes him invaluable after watching the Rangers with and without him. Take him to 15m AAV but Posey got 8 -167 so I could see Luc getting 5-80 or 90 on the open market.
So even if we take the numbers down 5 mil per player, that is still 25 mil extra you have going onto the books next year. Still a lot.
If the market is drying up then why is he waiting should be signing with the first contract he sees
I see a mystery team signing EE.
Orioles!
Milwaukee???
Him and Bautista were so dumb for not taking the Jays offer.
Bautista, perhaps, but I find it hard to believe that EE ends up with a one year deal worth less than his QO.
I think he means the 4 year 80 million he was offered by the Jays, not the QO
I thought he was referring to the 4/80?
He is talking the 4 year $80M offer the Jays gave EE.
What did the Jays offer Bautista? I recall him during the season saying he wants $125 million but I haven’t heard the Jays offer anything.
Jays only made QO. Nothing more. He won’t come near the 17 mill they offered in that period.
If Beltran can get 1/16, Jose can get 1/17 from someone.
They were on record saything they preferred a contract similar to what Cespedes signed last year 3/$75
Bautista (the past utility man) is overrated. His defense is horrible. He does not hit for a high average. His body is fragile. He is getting up there in age (baseball related)
What was Nellie’s numbers?
His contract he signed with Seattle?
C’mon google junkies!!
Rangers should focus on pitching. A combination of Rua Gallo Profar DeShields and Chirinos at 1st base and Dh should be enough. Chirinos should DH on his off days everyonce in a while. He’s the best backup catcher in baseball. Rua was surprisingly good last year. DeShields and Profar could have bounce back seasons. It’s finally time for Gallo do get a spot in the lineup because he’s never getting to play 3rd base with Beltre and Profar there. Also they should consider moving Gallo to LF Mazara to RF and Choo to DH.
Not to mention that the Rangers have a pretty good pitcher and a pretty good catcher who are set to be free agents at the end of next season. Signing EE would mean both of those players would likely be gone due to the budget.
Sign Tyson Ross
He is the perfect pitcher to sign as he could be gold. scares me that Pitt is involved though as they seem to be a great place to resurrect a pitchers career.
It’s the age factor the were nobody’s til they came to Toronto
He does have a bit of an injury history and that would be the biggest issue for me. Yankees in the AL would be my guess. I do not follow the NL much but St. Louis, San Fran
seem to be big spenders.
Giants have Belt and Cardinals have Matt Adams although he’s not that good anymore. Giants definitely not going after him and Cardinals don’t strike me to be the team to suddenly sign a 34-year old DH for $15-20MM until he’s 37-38.
I think so too. Especially for Bautista.
Yes, teams have liked the 1-2 year deals for 1B-DH. Including Ian Desmond in this group is providing fodder for a bad premise, however. Desmond is younger and more versatile defensively, and it would stun me if he ended up at 1b. Napoli, and Trumbo are more accurate comparisons. These are players looking for multiple years (3-4) and are limited defensively. Until they get signed, I don’t think the musical chairs for this market are becoming short. Its premature to think EE will be the one without a chair.
Its madness that the O’s are so willing to go 4 years for Trumbo when Edwin is just sitting there.
Exactly spend the extra 10 mill. He could win the triple crown with a hitters park like Camden
gotta give up the pick tho
Jays could offer 2 YR 36 and a mutual option for a third yr at 16. And include an opt out for EE after one year. They may as well at least put some offer out there. Their initial offer of 4/80 was ridiculous as he is no David Ortiz as far as walks or batting average.
Put 4/80 back on the table, Eddie is elite and I’m happy to pay him FMV
Kind of hard when they’re already paying $17mm/year for his replacements and have other holes to fill. Atkins is being generous; I doubt they have any real interest in EE now, and definitely not at 4/80.
At 4/80 someone is going to get a bargain for EE and I’m going to miss him terribly in Toronto as I watch Smoak, Morales, and Pearce fail miserably while they earn a combined over $21 million.
Someone’s going to get an amazing bargain then, because I doubt he gets 4/80 from anybody. Who’s going to give it to him? Clearly no one wants him that badly, all of his potential suitors either rushed out and signed cheaper players or don’t even have interest in him. Cleveland has mild interest but they can’t afford 4/80. Baltimore can’t afford 4/80. An NL team probably won’t want to go 4 years with him, so they’re all out.
He’ll likely get stuck taking 3/60, with an opt-out after year 1 so he can try again without a QO attached to him, and ideally after playing 1B all year to convince teams he can do it, which would further expand his market.
But then again, there always seems to be that one team that bids against itself and signs a player for his asking price even though no one else was seemingly having anything to do with him or his price, so we’ll see.
As for Morales and Pearce, they can hit. They may not be Edwin, but they’re certainly not Smoak either.
Cards have slept the whole meeting,go get Encarcion move Carpenter to 2 nd or third
At this point you may as well sign free agents with picks attached to them with how much it costs in prospects to make a trade. I don’t understand the reasoning in not signing someone when costs are so high in trades
Plus they don’t have the prospects to trade.
Orioles perhaps?
I would like to see Dipoto follow through with trading Smith then look into the teams looking for a closer and seeing what he could get for Cishek. That would free up $17 mill then see what it would take to get EE. We could then use Valencia in RF and keep some of the young guys in AAA for another year. Even if it was a 4 year deal with an opt out after every year I would be fine with it.
Indians should go for it. They have a hole at first and finished one win short of the title. He would fit nicely on the cleanup spot.
Go for what? They came within a run of winning the World Series and they got virtually nothing from Napoli or Santana in the postseason. Heck, the Tribe didn’t hit a lick in October, period; only the lack of arms eventually doomed them. That “hole” at first won’t keep them from winning the division, and after that, it’s their arms again that will tell the tale. They don’t need to be spending $80 million in scarce funds to go for anything…they’re already there, and nothing can assure winning it all anyway.
Correct also add Brantley some offensive production out of the catcher and some arms that get healthy and you got quite an improvement from last season
I see the Tribe doing something like 25 per year for three with a opt out after this year. That makes sense with the window they have and the talent coming up. It would also allow a qualifying offer which would help losing a first rounder this year. Just be patient Tribe…