Jayson Stark’s “Strange But True Facts” column is an annual tradition for baseball fans, and Stark is here with the 2017 edition of unusual statistical and factual oddities from the past season. Highlights include Matt Chapman’s odd do-over on his first career MLB hit, Travis d’Arnaud’s 22-position game on August 16, and the All-Garcia starting outfield deployed by the White Sox on April 14.
Some more from around baseball…
- Could Craig Kimbrel earn a $100MM free agent contract next offseason? WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford thinks it could happen, especially after Wade Davis’ three-year, $52MM deal with the Rockies established a new average annual value standard for a closer. Kimbrel turns 30 in May and is coming off one of his greatest seasons — a 1.43 ERA, 16.4 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 over 69 innings out of the Red Sox bullpen. Aroldis Chapman’s five-year, $86MM deal with the Yankees from last winter is the largest contract ever given to a relief pitcher, though Chapman signed that deal entering his age-29 season, whereas Kimbrel turns 30 in May. Kimbrel still stands a decent shot at topping Chapman’s mark, though cracking the $100MM threshold seems like a tall order.
- The Royals went into the offseason hoping to re-sign maybe one of Eric Hosmer (their top choice), Lorenzo Cain, and Mike Moustakas, though the Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd wonders if the team could re-assess its plans given the unexpectedly slow free agent market. All three players are still available as the calendar turns to January, and in the cases of Hosmer and Moustakas, they seem to be running short on viable landing spots. Re-signing any of those free agents, however, would cost the Royals compensation draft picks, which are valuable assets for a team that is looking at a rebuild. Dodd notes that K.C. was able to re-sign Alex Gordon when his free agent market proved to be quieter than expected, though given how Gordon has struggled over the last two years, the Royals probably aren’t thrilled with that comp.
- One of the reasons behind the lack of free agent action could be that teams are simply more cautious about the risk of spending big on a veteran player, Joel Sherman of the New York Post opines. Of the 14 current players on free agent deals with a $20MM average annual value and worth more than $100MM in total, only Max Scherzer and Jon Lester seem like clear wins for their teams, while the other 12 players range from questionable investments to outright busts. Sherman proposes that players should be allowed to become free agents after just four years of service time, arguing that the current free agent setup is “a flawed system” that doesn’t properly compensate players through their prime years.
Kimbrel deserves it, yes. But with teams trying to staying under the luxury tax, it’s a matter of where will he sign.
Trying to stay*
Since Kimbrel is already making $10.5 million AAV on his current contract giving him a $100m contract won’t be the burden on the luxury tax that signing a free agent of his caliber would. With Ramirez’s contract expiring they should be able to afford a raise for Kimbrel pretty easily.. They could also add an extra year for a smaller base salary to get the AAV down a bit.. Something like 6/$102 would only give him an AAV increase of about $7 million.. The logic and math works out to the Red Sox keeping him but I am one of those people who do not understand giving a player who only pitches 60-70 innings a year that big of a contract.. Relievers are the most volatile players in all of baseball and seem to fade faster than others because their pitch arsenal isn’t as developed as most starters.. The Yankees will regret giving Chapman that contract.. There is only so many times someone can throw a 104 mph fastball and being stuck with $17 million per year for a reliever on the decline would be a massive detriment to just about any other team.. Luckily for them they have so many cheap talented relievers in the minors and Chad Green and Tommy Kahnle in the majors to lessen the impact when Betances and Chapman start to severely decline in another couple of years..
Sorry to get off topic and ramble so much.. I am trying to curb it..
Does any team really want to commit 6 years to a closer?
Does any team want to commit $100 million on a closer? I think it’s the most overrated position in baseball.
Definitely a position that gets overblown. Look at Jim Johnson a few years ago in Baltimore. Showalter sent him out anytime he had the slightest chance of earning a save, even when he wasn’t really needed. His bloated save totals pushed him right out of town because the O’s could no longer afford him, whereas had he been used when needed, they could have kept him. Of course, in the long run, they were better off, but still…..
In the regular season, absolutely. However, once the playoffs roll around, these guys sometimes navigate an entire trip through the opposing lineup. Since teams with serious World Series aspirations are likely to be the only teams considering this type of transaction, the overrated nature of the position (especially the save stat) is somewhat mitigated.
I agree, he will get paid but where is the question.
Worth every penny. Health is never a concern. Freak of nature.
Kimbrel had 126 strikeouts to 14 walks in 69IP. I know W-L don’t mean anything, but he went 5-0. I think if he has any season close to this one, Kimbrel will break Chapman’s record for most money guaranteed to RP.
He had 1.43 ERA, 1.42 Fip.
He needs $14M more than Chapman, to hit that $100M.
Why even mention wins and losses?
I had no idea it would be so much. I won’t pay it.
That’s ok.. We’ll just put it right back in there!!
The four year rule would really hurt small market teams. Most small market teams benefit the most from years 3-6 with a superstar player. Having that player be able to leave after 4 years would significantly hurt the organization.
A hard cap would really help. I don’t understand why they don’t just go to one. The players association obviously wouldn’t like that, but there is absolutely no precedent for a cap-less league at this point. Every other major league has a cap. There must be some way to get the PA to go for a cap, and it would probably be worth it.
The salary cap has ruined the NBA and made hockey players get mediocre contracts. Baseball will NEVER implement a salary cap. If a small market team plays its cards right they can get 7 potential postseasons out of a star player .Thats more than fair.
How has a cap ruined the NBA?
It hasn’t
Really? The super teams like gsw, cavs, rockets, celtics hasnt ruined the parody of the nba?
Also, teams are forced to spend like 80 to 90 percent of their cap room meaning bad players are getting bad contracts ruining teams ability to go after top tier guys later on.
NBA is the worst possible model to build a spending plan on.
Teams don’t have to give out contracts such that the list of contracts on their books adds up to 80 to 90 percent of the cap. They just have to pay their players extra if the contracts don’t add up to that figure.
And even if they did have to give out contracts totaling that figure they would not have to do so with multi-year deals so they wouldn’t be hamstrung later on as you say.
Yes it has. Why do you think the super teams exist? Because no one else can offer massive deals to players. You really think the Warriors have 4 stars if there was no cap? No chance
You’re mixing up the cap with maximum contracts.
If you removed the cap and left max salaries in place the likeliest thing to happen would be be for the Warriors to add a fifth star.
Doing the opposite, leaving the cap in place (and making it a hard cap) and eliminating max salaries would eliminate super teams.
If there was a $100m hard cap and no max salary then those four stars wouldn’t stay on GS to play for $20m each, they would each go off to a different team to play for $40-70m, whatever each would be worth on the market.
If MLB is the only league without a cap then there actually is precedent. The luxury tax is a decent enough cap. In a free market owners should have the right to spend as much as they want. If they are willing to accept the penalties that come with the freedom to spend it only shows how profitable organizations are. Putting restrictions on salaries is never a good thing. Prices for attending games rise every year. Those profits should be used to improve the product. The MLB compensates small and mid-market teams very generously. If anything teams like Miami for instance should be forced to meet a cap floor.
The floor idea has some merit except there’s a fear that a team like Miami or Oakland would simply shoot for the floor every year and just stay there. The luxury tax is so draconian that it serves as a de-facto cap, which I’m still uncomfortable with but it’s much better than an actual salary cap.
Having them shoot for the floor would still result in more spending than what is currently being done by those franchises
There is a floor in MLB, the minimum salary. Increase the minimum salary to four million and the bulk of the inequity would disappear.
The players need to figure out what they have done to themselves. They have priced the middle class of MLB players out of employment while making 16 year old teens so valuable that a GM has been banned for life for trying to sign “more than his share”‘.
If draft picks were suddenly tradable you would see a team coming out of a rebuild deal their 1st round pick for a prime asset in July.
Yeah, because when I think of the NBA and NFL with their salary-caps, the first thing that comes to mind is “competitive balance.” The same two teams have met in the NBA finals the last three seasons and the New England Patriots are basically the Yankees of Football, while an NFL team is about to go 0-16 this season. Salary caps don’t do anything except put money in owners’ pockets. They don’t help competitive balance in the slightest.
That’s because baseball has the best union, the NFL has the worst.
Different sports, you can bat your best hitter ever time you want, unlike basketball, just give the ball to LeBron. That is why if yiu have a good players in the NFL or NBA you can always win. And screw a cap, that only makes the owners richer. They are already getting a bigger % from total revenue than years past
“I dislike the free market. Regulate everything to the teeth.” – Connorsoxfan
A cap would do nothing but benefit the owners
A cap is possibly the worst thing that could happen to the sport and does nothing but shift money from players to owners and artificially suppress player salaries. It would be awful for the game
The owners of big market teams would not agree to a cap. Why would they give up the advantage they have now?.
I agree completely.. Although something like 4 years with no arb years and bringing back the old restricted free agent rules would help lessen the blow to small market teams.. They have to do something though.. It seems like more and more free agents are not getting a chance at that big payday until they turn 32.. Small market teams like the Rays seem to try to lock up potential stars when they are on rookie contracts far from free agency.. Players like Zobrist sign those contracts and then get traded all around the league and don’t see free agency until their best years are behind them.. Granted I think players are seriously overpaid as it is but as long as fans are willing to pay the money to support the game, more money should be going to the guys who actually provide the product on the field and not to the owners.. No matter how much they scream poverty..
Players sign those extensions when offered for two reasons 1) a 22 year old sees seven years as a lifetime and 2) his agent is worried he’ll be fired before those years of service time expire and he’ll miss out on the big payday.
If you reduced the amount of control years teams have they will likely ask for a franchise tag like stipulation. I doubt that happens. Maybe a more advanced arbitration system where players get paid what they are worth more immediate than the 40-80%. Still the problem is what would be given up. Yes FA deals would be smaller but we are seeing that now.
Cano contract hasn’t look like a bust, he only had one down year. Yet how come if we talk about 10 year contract why not jeter? He signed a 10 year for 186 I mean it’s not 20 million a year but he perform each year great.
it says current players
Cano is a current player. He certainly didn’t die.
referring to Jeter
Cano is a questionable signing. The Mariners haven’t been better then they were before he signed with them.
That’s completely incorrect since in 2014, and 2016 combined they went 173-151. Albeit, 2015 and 2017 were bad years, some of it has to go to injuries in 2017, when you nearly set a record for most pitchers in a season.
You still need 24 other players on the roster. Even 6 good players and 19 mediocre to bad ones isn’t good enough (see Miami).
Maybe we are due a reset in baseball contracts. I don’t see the 4 year rule changing and the luxury tax is effecting big market teams. These contracts have gotten out of hand especially compared to other sports where contracts aren’t guaranteed (NFL) and max value and salary cap limits earnings (NBA). Baseball needs an adjustment.
Non-guaranteed contracts in a sport in which more than half the players suffer serious and permanent health damage are immoral and vile. The owners are making boatloads of money in the NFL. They can and should guarantee their contracts.
Are you kidding me? Look at the type of players earning max level deals in the NBA! Guys like Harrison Barnes and Chandler Parsons make $25 mil a year. Look at the link
businessinsider.com/nba-highest-paid-players-2017-…
The owners make more. And the owners sign the contracts. No player ever wrote himself a contract.
You are talking without knowing. Baelseball players get a smaller piece of the pie today, than in tears past. This last CBA contract was so bad for players. Would fire Tony Clark from the players Unión. He screw the international players and look how the free agents are doing. More money for the owners. Again the rich getting richer by taking it away from the ones who actually do the work.
Not great English yet one of the best posts here. When you speak the truth as you did the message comes through loud and clear.
Exactly! The cap would do nothing but line the pockets of the owners
Then all they would do is pocket the money
and put an inferior team on the field
and screw the fans
and the players too!
Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg.
While I’m not sympathetic to the owners at all, I don’t feel the slightest bit bad for MLB players. The average salary is $4 million right now. That’s more than most people make in their entire lives, and we have pitchers who work one day (maybe two) a week making $100k an out or $1 million a start.
$100m closer? Seems possible but I sure hope it doesn’t happen with my team.
Six seasons of Kimbrel for a $100 million? I’d think more than a few teams might be willing to do that contract in today’s market.
How would “Re-signing any of those free agents (Hosmer, Moustakas, Cain)” cost them a draft pick? They are Royals players looking to be resigned by the Royals. Come on MLBTR, you can proofread better than that.
If cain, hosmer, moustakas sign for more than 50 mill the royals wind up getting 3 extra picks in the draft. At this point, whats more valuable? Cain Hosmer Moustakas on long term deals or the extra draft picks?
Resigning them prohibits those 3 extra picks, thus theyd lose out on those picks by resigning them.
Same thing happened when Toronto resigned bautista who had a QO last year
Cuz they would get the picks from the team that would sign them, think a little bit before you trash other people and make yourself look dumb.
Bingo…I hate when people who don’t know what they’re talking about claim that other people are the dumb ones
Pretty sure they meant the royals would lose out on the compensation picks they would’ve received if another team signed those players
If they sign elsewhere, Royals get a pick. If they sign them, they don’t. The statement was correct.
Bet u wish u had a proofreader right about now!
Sigh…. #cantfixstupid
If teams were guaranteed only 4 years of a developed player, there would be no complete rebuilds. There would also be less value to prospects. Why trade assets, like Sale or Quintana, if what you receive will be gone before a rebuild is completed? More teams would hold back prospects in the minors. Why call up Springer, when the rest of Houston’s prospects aren’t ready to join him, yet? Better to wait to call up 3 or 4 at the same time. More reason to not start a players clock. I just don’t see the hardship on the player by waiting 6 years.
If the way it stands now is so hard on players how come nobody signs early extensions. I guess Boras is an idiot for not signing players to early extensions
Salaries go up over time. Locking into an early extension, at the current market value, keeps a player from future, higher earnings. That’s why players are smart to avoid them, unless they truly love the team or city or something.
That’s my point Young players by 5th year of contract earning 15 mill and them can sign for huge salary as fa. No exactly killing them
Not necessarily. Some guys want guaranteed money. Nothing is certain in baseball. Maybe you wait it out and end up falling off the face of the earth and lose out on millions because you didn’t sign that early extension. It’s not always smart to avoid them. If you’re a pitcher and you’re in last year of arb and offered say 6yr-$100m deal and turn it down. Then halfway through the season boom, you need TJ surgery. Well, there goes millions out the door. No team is going to sign you for what you were worth when it happened. Someone will offer a small, flyer contract hoping you’ll get back to your usual form. Doesn’t always happen. Johan Santana, Eric Chavez?
I’m sorry but you lost me when you said it was hard on players. I have sympathy for guys I the minors but none of the many guys I’ve known that played in the majors would say that they were “hurting”.
No, they’re all rich. So are the owners. We can begrudge rich people all we want, but we don’t do it in other industries. I mean, when Apple comes out with a new iPhone do we say “come on, doesn’t Steve Jobs(or his heirs) have enough money?” Or when Donald Trump buys another golf course, do we say, “come on, man, how much is enough?” The players are obviously fairly compensated for the work they do; they earn around half the revenue in baseball, which is higher than the other major sports, but obviously still less than what the owners make..
Where does he say anything about begruding rich people?
The tenor seems to be “the players make too much money.” We don’t say that about owners, ever, or people who run industries, even if we believe it to be true. But it’s always “the players make too much money.”
If you were referring to me as thinking about the tenor of my reply then you have to realize I was referring SPECIFICALLY to Willy Mays comments where he said “if it stands now is so hard on players…”. Perhaps I misunderstood his comments but while I think that major league players are NOT having it hard, in no way do I begrudge them or the owners either. I have no qualms with anyone making money.
The way I understood his comments was that he felt players were hard up. While I don’t see anything wrong with them signing big contracts I also think that unless they are totally wasteful they should be set after a few years in the majors compared to the common man.
I’m actually thankful that some players have made so much money that they generously donate to needy charities.
I speak bad about owners as well. As a Royals fan, I know with their recent success they could’ve spent a little more the past couple years but chose not to, so they could line their pockets. Baseball is about putting a product on the field that sells and puts “butts in seats”. MLB along with every business out there, is all about generating a profit. “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game” sums it all up.
” how come nobody signs early extensions.”
Gregory Polanco waves hello. Remember how the Pirates spent almost two years committing felony extortion against Polanco to get him to sign that deal?
Oh wait, who’s that other Pirate waving to you? It’s Starling Marte!
Let me know if you want the names of some more MLB players who have signed early extensions.
Some guy on the Marlins who has been a headliner on this site every day for the past two months.
Bad idea. Players union would have a fit over teams holding players back multiple years to delay service time. They already have issue with 1 extra year of control.
Holding back players also creates a log jam in the minors, ruins the high school component since they dont have time to develop a guy, and now teams that need those extra guys could lose them unless you go from a 40 man roster to like 60.
Omar Minaya had so many fits on behalf of the players they got this great new CBA and Omar went back to work for Fred Wilpon.
Isn’t that where the Rule 5 draft comes in to play? If a team keeps a player in the minors for too long, eventually the other 29 teams will be able to literally steal them away.
Charlie Finley suggested when he owned the A’s in the 1970s that he and his fellow owners grant free agency to every player not already signed to a multi-year contract after every season.
Finley argued that forcing each player and his agent decide between a one-year deal or whatever guaranteed multi-year contract they could negotiate would reduce teams’ overall player compensation costs.
Then again, certain owners may have still blown up the market by throwing outrageously overpriced first- and second-year deals to their very best players. Could have been interesting, either way.
That’s basically the reserve clause – a team could offer a player a contract or not after each season. And of course an owner would propose a system that put more money in his pockets.
I don’t see how Lester is a clear good contract but Cano is not.
Cano has produced 20.5 rWAR over the first four years of his ten year contract
Lester has produced 9.1 rWAR over the first three years of his six year contract.
With the $8m/WAR thing people reference Cano has been worth $164m over these four years and has accounted for 68% of his contract’s value 40% of the way through it.
Lester has been worth $73m with the Cubs, accounting for 47% of his contract’s value 50% of the way through the deal.
Obviously Lester has made significant playoff contributions and changed the culture of the team and whatnot but I can’t see how his contract is obviously good is Cano’s isn’t. Cano could finish living up to his contract with two more good years leaving the last four years as gravy.
Good post. I agree.
Cano still has 6 years left, hes in the TBD or “questionable” section with Price and Grienke
limit free agent deals to four years, eliminate the no trade clause
> teams are simply more cautious about the risk of spending big on a veteran player
translation: GMs finally are learning that the steroid era is over and, typically, older players don’t produce like stars until they’re 40.
Took them more than 10 years to learn that.
Hit the nail on the head.
Strange that Lester is deemed a win while Tanaka is deemed questionable. In fact, I’d say Tanaka’s deal is favorable given his age. Yanks would 100% do that deal again.
No, they would not buy damaged goods at the same price.
Just look at the projected WAR on some of these free agents like DJ , Hosmer and Darvish ask yourself what he is worth. .They are doomed to never meeting expectations.
If players want to make more in free agency they should just increase minor league salaries of prospects and arbitration salaries of rookies.
When a team can’t get 20 fWAR for 10 million dollars in total rookie salaries, they will look to free agents again.
Zzzzz what an offseason it has been.
March is going to be absolutely bonkers though.
Arguably the best closer in baseball, will definitely get 100 million if not close to it. Deserves it completely class act. I’ll be intrested to see where he goes.
Yeah, the Royals should totally do exactly what they did with Gordon, yeah, Hosmer didn’t have a career-high .351 BABIP in 2017 or anything!!! Great move for a small market team. *facepalm*
Hosmer totally is going to be a 1.0 WAR guy getting $25M in 2018 lol ugh
So Joel Sherman proposed service time be reduced to four years?
I wonder where he got that idea from?
It’ll be interesting to see who the Red Sox replace Kimbrel and Kelly with.
The Red Sox are well on their way to becoming interesting for the wrong reasons.
DaaaaH! Don’t you think DD knows that?
Maybe we should get JDM to make up for the loss of Kimbrel. LOL
There’s $200M+ gone !!!!
Maybe $300M+
Let’s get Hosmer too !!!!!
That’s only $450M+
But who cares it’s John Henry’s money …. LOL
Kimbrel will b back in the ATL next year they will have the $$$ to spend.
One of the few ways I feel baseball’s CBA is inferior to NFL’s or NBA’s is the service time. Especially in the NBA, where you get four years of a rookie scale deal (the six years of arb control), but usually if the player is good you’re likely going to have him another four years at a salary more beneficial to the player. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as instituting that rule for many reasons due to their being no spending limit which benefits the top end players with nine figure contracts. If you switch it to four, then there should be a clause where the original team has the right to match the offer or receive certain compensation greater than an “unrestricted” free agent signing. It’s fun to debate, as I sure many of you will point out flaws in my very basic thoughts, but the current system gives teams control and doesn’t prevent players from making millions for the most part. This year’s market has more to do with teams not wanting to tie up space for next year’s market than anything.
I’ve never been a fan of paying a lot for relief help, however there are certain players who are worth it and Kimbrel is one of them.
It is just outlandish to me that teams are paying upwards of $10,000,000 annually to middle relievers or low leverage set-up guys when there are 10 to 20 players every year who turn out to be very serviceable options on minor league deals, minor trades or waiver claims.
Looking to 2017 as an example: Blake Parker, Brandon Morrow, Anthony Swarzak, Kirby Yates, Pat Neshek, Bud Norris, Yusmiero Petit, Sam Freeman, Kevin Shackleford, Dom Leone, Craig Stammen, Nick Goody, Matt Albers, Blaine Boyer and Tommy Hunter
Also, Joe Smith was a MLB signing, however he was exceptionally cheap
That’s almost three full MLB bullpens of guys who were picked up on the scrap heap