The Rockies have avoided arbitration with outfielder Charlie Blackmon by agreeing to a one-year deal worth $14MM, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (Twitter link). The ACES client had a projected arbitration salary of $13.4MM, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Matt also took a more in-depth look at Blackmon’s case and some of the intricacies surrounding his projection as part of his Arbitration Breakdown series.
Blackmon, 31, finished fifth in the NL MVP voting this past season on the heels of a brilliant campaign in Colorado. In a league-leading 725 plate appearances, Blackmon hit .331/.399/.601 with 37 homers, taking home the NL batting title. Blackmon also paced the National League in runs scored (137), hits (213), triples (14) and total bases (387). All of that combined to give Blackmon a massive raise of $6.7MM — a 91.7 percent increase over last year’s salary of $7.3MM.
This’ll be the final trip through the arbitration process for Blackmon, who will be a part of one of the best free-agent classes in recent memory next offseason. He’ll be joined by teammates DJ LeMahieu and Chad Bettis in that regard, both of whom are also eligible for arbitration this winter (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker). Lefty Zac Rosscup caps off the Rockies’ arbitration class.
Still an amazing bargain for a guy of his caliber.
Isn’t this his last one? Next year’s free agent class is going to be epic.
Next years free agent class will indeed be historic. With the Yankees and dodgers resetting the luxury tax thresholds it will be world war 3 for these free agents lol
yankees are basically set on any position except 3B. And they will sure look into pitching, but that will pretty much be it.
It is his last time to arbitration. He’s also going to turn 32 on July 1st, and he’s marginal in CF right now.
Yankees farm is loaded and a lot of the talent’s ETA is 2018 or 2019. I’m not sure if they’ll be as big of players on anyone but Machado. Pitching they’ll get but I don’t think they’ll do anymore CC type deals anytime soon.
Yankees also have to worry about paying their in house talent too. Stanton and his 30M, Judge when he comes due won’t be cheap and if they sign machado he will get 25M per. Not to mention guys like Didi and Sanchez will get theirs. From Stanton, Judge and Machado (possibly) you’re looking at 75+M for 3 guys.
I would say closer to 100M, but yea, overspending next year would not be in there best interest. If I were them, I would try to work on a deal now that spread out the money with Judge and Sanchez. If they could buy out from now until 2 years into FA with an AAV of 15M, I think it would be better fitting for them. Maybe next year after they can reduce payroll some more.
How is this at all currently related to the Yankees? The last thing MLBTR needs is a Yankee version of Bigpapi4ever…
I don’t think they will go crazy next off season either as they are set up beautifully for a long time. Especially if Torres is legit which I believe he will be and is our second/third baseman. I hope andujar opens eyes too. If they want to get a pitcher however they will have the flexibility to do so
The Yankees can do what Tampa has done with some of their players in the past and buy out some free agent years for judge Sanchez etc
Blackmon has some of the worst home/away splits I’ve ever seen. He’ll be 32 and pushing 33 next off season. He’s not getting a giant contract.
Is he really 32 ? I thought he was younger. And I agree with his splits. I mentioned them yesterday and let’s just say people didn’t agree with me lol
His splits are horrible
At Coors Field he looks like Mike Trout 2.0
On the road he looks more like John Jay
He’s on the bad side of 30…. and will probably get 5/110 tops, as a FA
I wonder if they could have had him for 3-4 years at $16M per, but he’s not long for CF at this point and especially not at Coors Field.
Him and his agent will ask for more if he replicates 2017 and of that happens the Rockies should just let him walk and focus on aranado
The thing about Blackmon is he keeps getting better and he was better on the road in ’16 so he’s proven his ability to hit away from Coors. He’ll probably get a little bit overpaid next year but he’s a good player regardless.
I agree about Arenado needing the focus. Honestly, if they cannot get a long-term deal in place before this season starts I think they need to look at trading him while he still has two years of control left (one contract year and one arb).
If Rockies traded Blackmon to Boston for JBJ
they would save $8m next year and still have another year of arbitration left. Bradley Jr just signed for $6.1M this year.
Except there is zero chance that Boston would do that deal.
This will get really interesting for the Rockies the next little while if David Dahl doesn’t return to his 2016 levels and start progressing from there. And then Nolan is a FA after 2019.