NOV. 6: The Nationals have now formally announced that Wieters has exercised his player option.
4:44pm: Wieters will indeed exercise his player option to remain with the Nationals, the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes reports (Twitter link).
NOV. 4, 8:19am: It “is not at all a done deal” that Wieters exercises his option, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets. The catcher has yet to make a decision in either direction.
NOV. 3, 1:05pm: Agent Scott Boras tells Feinsand that Wieters is still mulling the decision (Twitter link). “What he does for a pitching staff is off the charts & in great demand,” Boras tells Feinsand.
12:20pm: Matt Wieters intends to exercise his $10.5MM player option and remain with the Nationals in 2018, reports MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (on Twitter). It’s not a surprising move for Wieters, considering the poor season he had in his first year as the Nationals’ primary backstop.
The 31-year-old Wieters inked a two-year, $21MM guarantee with the Nats last offseason, with the latter year of that contract coming in the form of a player option. However, Wieters posted career-worst marks in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and caught-stealing rate with the Nats this season, so it’s seemed all but certain that he’d forgo another chance at free agency for quite some time now.
Overall, Wieters batted just .225/.288/.344 with 10 homers through 465 plate appearances. He halted 25 percent of opposing stolen-base attempts, which is only slightly below the league average but is also well south of the career 33 percent mark he carried into the 2017 season. He also rated as one of the game’s bottom pitch-framing catcher, per Baseball Prospectus.
Even with Wieters back in the fold, it’d be a surprise if the Nationals didn’t pursue help behind the plate this offseason. Young Pedro Severino is the team’s top internal alternative, but the 24-year-old Severino batted just .241/.292/.332 in 59 Triple-A games last season.
Given the Nationals’ status as clear-cut contenders — especially in their final season of control over Bryce Harper — GM Mike Rizzo seems unlikely to head in the year with such a glaring question mark on his roster. Myriad trade opportunities could present themselves, and it’s also possible (speculatively speaking) that the Nats could make a run at either Alex Avila or Welington Castillo — the top two catchers on the open market. Avila, in particular, strikes me as a logical candidate; he can play some first base in the event of an injury to Ryan Zimmerman, and his left-handed bat would pair well with Wieters, who has consistently been a more dangerous right-handed hitter than left-handed hitter throughout his Major League career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
In other news, the sky is blue.
Boras has come a long way and learned his lesson that his hot air and smoke can’t cover warts of guys like Weiters now in FA. Years back he would have opted out and boldy made some hillarious statement of seeking a 4/40m deal due to his leadership being unparalleled behind the plate.. remembering varitek after ’09…
While Weiters is still a really useful guy to teach and coach younger kids coming up? so is ryan Hannigan. Weiters needs a rebound and not sure he’s got it in him any longer.
Wieters’ best days are a speck in the rear view mirror. Now the Nats need to find a platoon partner for him who is more reasonably priced and more productive. Boras always tells a compelling fairy tale that rarely, if ever, comes true. This prince is, predictably, a pumpkin, but we all knew that last winter.
This is why people hire Boras.
Matt got the best of both worlds.
It’s nice to have ‘options’ 😉
Not a big surprise at all, but if he had any dignity he would opt out. He owes that to the Nationals. I have no idea why the Nats signed him to a 2 year deal, since no one else wanted him. It should have been a mutual option . Hopefully, they either go out and get someone who can share more of the catching duties or turn the job over to Severino to see how he does.
Lol he doesn’t owe Washington anything, no one forced them to sign him to a 2 year deal, it was their choice. No one else showed interest because 29 other teams weren’t willing to give him more than a 1 year deal, and Washington was the only team stupid enough to cave into his demand for a second year option. This is the price they pay. Literally.
That’s dumb.
He’s only making $10.5MM this coming year. It’s hardly some franchise-crippling amount.
At worst he’s a replacement level MLB catcher. There’s only so many catchers out there.
Actually it is pretty damaging because the Nats are right at the luxury tax threshold (which would be for the 2nd year and taxed at 35%, I believe), so they don’t have a lot of money to work with.. I agree the Nats made a bad signing, maybe they had an agreement with Boras that he wouldn’t exercise it. We will see. Only thing I know is I can’t stand watching him play.
Why would you say, “oh, here is an option…. but on the hush, don’t take it.”
He was literally worse than replacement in 2017 -1.1 fWAR
And u said he was good
I remember
I was purely in the meh department on him last season. Thought at worst he be like a 0-1 WAR player.
Contract looked terrible day 1.
Severino is horrible
He does not owe the Nationals anything. Nationals agreed to the stupid deal and now you the Weiters should forego ten plus million dollars since “it should have been a mutual option” in your sorry opinion?
Well it was not a mutual option. You cannot renogiate now
Loyalty? LOL, It takes more than a year to build loyalty, this is just like the idiot and I pushed it and talking about how Justin Upton was being loyal to the angels, after 2 1/2 months of service
Spellcheck = grammar fail
Any dignity? That’s ridiculous lol
Considering his season this was a pretty likely outcome. Doesn’t stop the Nats from adding another catcher and playing him more. The Nats gave him the option so it’s on them if he accepts it. May not be a popular thing but it’s within his rights to do so.
Of course he will exercise it
“What he does for a pitching staff is off the charts & in great demand,”
Of course Boras doesn’t mention in which direction of the charts that he’s off.
Classic! 🙂
Lol
The Scott Boras spin machine is so deliciously ridiculous.
“How can I make Matt Wieters look desirable for the 2018 season?”
“Okay, let’s start with offense. Everyone digs the long ball.”
“OK, he had almost the same amount of games as 2016, yet he had less hits, 7 less HRs, 13 less RBIs, and struck out almost 100 times in only 465 ABs.”
“Oh and hit a career worst .225 and had an awful .288 OBP.”
“Sh*t.”
“OK, what else, WAR, the fantasy geeks love WAR! Let’s see…”
“-0.6.”
“Sh*t.”
“Um.”
“…”
“Let’s try defense. Catching stats. OK, let’s take a look…”
“Pitch framing + Blocking + Throwing out baserunners…he’s…”
“One of the worst in the league. Not even in the top 30.”
“…”
“So..we’ll go the intangibles route..”
“What he does for a pitching staff is off the charts & in great demand!”
Only one thing needs to be corrected in your otherwise spot on Boras assessment..
WAR is the fantasy PRETEND stat geeks love. It is completely useless and should be removed and never mentioned again.. It is a simple number that fans can look at and immediately (incorrectly) gauge a players value when they don’t understand more comprehensive stats like OPS+, ERA+, wRC+ and DRS.. WAR is the exact reason Jason Heyward received an almost $200 million dollar contract when he should have gotten something closer to 4 years @ $60 million..
Another one they like to point to (incorrectly) is citing FIP when discussing relief pitchers.. FIP is a stat designed for starters and should not be attributed to relievers.. I know advanced stats are difficult to grasp at times. But, using them incorrectly trying to prove a point, makes people look dumb..
Sorry about yet another rant.. I am going to have the wife take my keyboard away for the day..
Saying WAR “completely useless” is an over-reaction to it’s sometimes misuse. It is useful, but like all baseball stats doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s useful because it takes defense into account with the offense. And like all baseball stats it needs to be used in conjunction with OPS+, ERA+, wRC+, DRS, UZR etc.
Why do people who don’t seem to understand WAR say things like it’s a fantasy stat. WAR is basically the anti-fantasy stat. It’s a stat that tries to incorporate everything a player does, not just his offense or SB. I’ve never seen a fantasy player get credit for a good defensive play or going 1st to 3rd on a single. BA or saves are more of “fantasy” stats.
What brand of liquor is Boras drinking these days? I’ve heard drunks on barstools at 2:00am babbling more believable yarns than the one he’s spinning. Boras missed his calling as a fiction writer.
Hey now, he encourages pitchers to get better by themselves since he sure as heck isn’t going to help
All jokes aside I do believe wieters has a positive effect on a pitching staff. The orioles staff this year was 5x more horrendous as usual. Nats staff was never a problem, but gio definitely had a career year. Could certainly be a coincidence
Knowing Boras he was probably trying to get Wieters to be a free agent.
Why? If Boras is a good agent he wants Wieters to maximize the money he’ll get. The more money he gets the more Boras gets. Regardless the best way to keep a client and get new ones is for the client to be happy. Scott Boras is well aware of this.
After taking a quick glance through his stats I have uncovered exactly how to turn Wieters into a star.. When hitting 8th in the lineup for 37 games/34 starts (I know its a small sample size but Nationals fans deserve a little bit of hope..) last year he hit .272/.354/.482 for an OPS of .836. That is All Star numbers for a catcher.. All the Nationals have to do is bat him 8th all year long and they will have a super star on their hands.. Too bad Dusty didn’t pick up on that simple fact when facing the Cubs..
I was looking over the 2007 draft when Baltimore drafted Wieters 5th overall so I can play the “when they could have drafted _______ instead game” and I realized that has to be one of the worst 1st round draft classes of recent times.. Yes there was David Price going 1st overall and Moustakas (as a SS) going 2nd.. But, Wieters was actually the 5th best player (by b-WAR) taken in the 1st round.. So, in theory he was taken right where he should have been with Heyward going 1st overall (I was shocked to see he had more WAR than Price or Bumgarner but that is why it is a stupid stat) Price 2nd, Bumgarner 3rd, and Porcello 4th.. Of course, the Orioles would have looked brilliant had they taken a lesser thought of catcher with the 5th pick in Josh Donaldson. He ended up going 48th overall to the Cubs (for the loss of Juan Pierre) in the supplemental round. Todd Frazier was the only other player of note to be taken in the first 64 picks..
I find it baffling that Giancarlo Stanton (taken 76th overall in the 2nd round) has exactly .2 more WAR (35.1 to 34.9) than Jason Heyward.. WAR is seriously flawed and completely useless in determining player value..
Sorry about the useless babble.. I just found it interesting and thought I would share.. Don’t worry guys.. This was supposed to be my last round of chemo. So, hopefully, the days of my mile long posts and useless babble will be behind me..
Heyward gets a ton of WAR for his defensive value. Which I”m fine with but if defensive value was that valuable teams would be employing guys that hit like Heyward has recently instead of trying to find replacements for them…much like the Cubs have done with Heyward.
So I agree not perfect.
Concerning Heyward,I think the problem isn’t the part of his WAR based on his defense. Defense is clearly an underrated and valuable part of the game.
Per BB REF he has a career WAR of 34.9. His career WAR is high because along with his defense he put up OPS+ stats of 131, 117, 114, and 117 in 2010, 2012 2013, and 2015, He also had a good season at the plate in 2014. But in his previous 2 sub-par seasons of 2016 and 2017, his WAR is only 3.9 because he put up an OPS+ of 68 and 85.
The problem is he’s vastly overpaid based on what he was projected to do at the plate not his WAR based on his D.
I think the problem the casual fan or the anti-WAR fan has is that they just have a complete blind spot when it comes to the notion that a position player has value besides at the plate. Jason Heyward, who we;’re apparently talking about here, has more WAR, in his career than Stanton because he’s played more (approximately an extra season’s worth of PAs) and Heyward is a terrific defender and baserunner. Preventing outs is important too. Stanton will pass him in career WAR this season, so it doesn’t feel like a big deal. To use WAR in a vacuum is silly, but to dismiss it as some of the above posters do is pretty silly too.
Jason also started full time in the majors at age 20. So, he’s had eight years to rack up the WAR.
Don’t forget Boras used WAR to get Shin Soo Freakin Choo a 7 year / $130M Rangers contract in 2014. He kept pointing to the 5.5 WAR he had with the Reds in 2013. Other than a 3.6 in 2015, Choo has never been above a 1.0 WAR since.
I believe there is *some* value in WAR, but I agree that it is often overvalued and way too often used in making key decisions.
It’s not the fault of WAR that people take a one year peak value and misinterpret it by trying to project it out over the years of a contract.
As a Ranger fan, Choo getting $100M at the time made me laugh. He wasn’t worth it then. Now him getting $100M+ makes me curse. He is not a good player and he is killing our payroll.
Boras doesn’t sign the contracts
If he can stay healthy this year, he’s on track to put up numbers
As far as Weiters goes, catchers are tricky. If you can stay behind the plate it’s quite easy to have a long career despite having no obvious skills. Jeff Mathis has played 13 seasons, was the starting catcher for the Diamondbacks in the postseason this year, and has compiled in his career exactly one win. That’s cumulative. One win. He has zero offensive value, his defense and framing skills don’t rate well, but he has those “intangibles” that catchers have….Jason Varitek had a lengthy and lucrative career despite being a bad defender and a league-average hitter. Catchers are a different breed, because they do have a skill – pitch calling and working directly with a pitcher – that cannot be measured.
In fairness to Mathis, I guess, his framing has rated really well, at least in recent years. It’s not enough to make him a useful contributor, IMO, but he does have some form of on-field skill
Except Varitek actually possessed these intangibles that Boras is now assigning to Weiters.
It’s easy to say what other people should do… BUT he should exercise that option! I just don’t think he will do better in FA this year. He’s playing himself into lesser and lesser contracts as time goes on. Give it another solid paid year to see if he can earn a 3 year deal next off season.
I never understood why Washington fired Ramos. He was a much better player then wieters in my opinion.
I guess I’m trying to see Boras’ angle here. Wieters’ results are clearly not commensurate with his salary. I think Boras is actually trying to leverage the Nats for more money, more years, or both. Rizzo needs to be resolute and say, “Look, take the opt out or don’t take the opt out. We’re good either way, but if you think anyone on this end is gonna beg him to stay, that’s not happening.”
Boras, when playing a weak hand, can sometimes remind me of when your Aunt tries to set you up on a blind date, and all she can talk about is how nice the girl’s family is, how she went to Brown,speaks three languages, very talented, plays the piano, etc.etc. Of course, these are all important qualities, but..
Wieters is a risky sign. All his skills may be deteriorating.
You have a weird aunt, dude.
I’ve been happily married for 30 years. No, my Aunt didn’t suggest her.
If I’m a Nats fan, I’m hoping he opts out. But I doubt he’s that dumb. They’re stuck with him.
Boras is just doing his job but the truth is Wieters would be goofy not to pick up his option. He’s not food defensively and he stinks offensively. Those qualities are not in demand.
Here’s a stat…..”ET”, as in eye test….. Weiters sucks in ET…. he’d be stupid not to take his DC cash, because his 2019 season will likely start on a Minor league invite. He barely got a Deal last season, idk what Boras can possibly be thinking ?
Let him opt out! Who cares if he does? In fact Washington should come out and dare him to do it. Goat him into opting out!
I would care if he opted out because,
That would be a real plot twist, JKB.
Well it appears he opted in after all. But why would you care if he opted out? He stinks. Let him walk?
The market repercussions, and how it plays out, JKB.
I’d love to see if Boras fails (or succeeds) in securing his client more than $10.5MM, when the universal notion was he would be hard-pressed to do so.
But as we figured, Matt opted in to $10.5MM player option for 2018.
Oh I get it. I thought you were a Nats fan worried about him opting out. I Agree it would have been fun to watch him scramble for a contract
Matt Wieters opts in.
I am Jack’s lack of surprise.
Boras – 22 Lerners – 0
Boras is a very smart man. He threw a little shade, maybe looking for an extension, then stayed with the pillow contract.
Oh my God Mike you are blowing Boras here? Like the Nationals were going to be fooled into extending Wieters? Haha OMG. I have news for you. The Nationals were hoping he would walk!
Yea your hero Boras
And they did not take a “pillow contract” boy you love that Boras. No offer was made by Nats. Wieters simply declined to opt out of his current deal.
$10.5 mil in the bag vs who knows what… you can get who knows what next year!
Matt Wieters is and always has been a highly over-rated player.
Nationals totally took gas on that contract last winter, They are stuck with him and there is really nothing that they can do about it..
The bigger point here is that the Lerners have been totally duped by Boras and are now paying the price with a group of egotistic players who threw their fine manager under the bus and are going to go another year of playing the games that don’t count and choking in October when it does count.
Remind me, what was the Orioles’ record this October?
Weiters represents one of the few players the O’s let walk and didn’t perform better for his next team.
Jim johnson
They traded Johnson, but still
That moment when the alt-right, evangelical-vegan RSVPs to your party with a txt “I’ll be there; cool if I get a plus 10.5 million? can’t wait!”
Shocker
Dude sucks and he won’t he that much as a free agent