FRIDAY: Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports tweets that Moustakas has passed his physical and is officially back with Kansas City.
THURSDAY: The Royals have struck a one-year deal with third baseman Mike Moustakas, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Jon Heyman and Robert Murray of Fan Rag had reported earlier that the Scott Boras client was nearing a deal to return to Kansas City.
The contract will guarantee Moustakas just $6.5MM — far shy of expectations heading into the winter. That comes in the way of a $5.5MM salary for the coming season and a $1MM buyout of a $15MM mutual option for the 2019 campaign. Moustakas can also earn up to $2.2MM via incentives for the coming season, per Passan. The bonuses begin at 225 plate appearances and would be maxed out at an achievable 450, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star (Twitter links).
Clearly, Moustakas expected more when he turned down a $17.4MM qualifying offer from the Royals at the outset of the offseason. And for good reason: the 29-year-old was viewed by many as one of the best players on the open market. Indeed, MLBTR predicted the 29-year-old would secure an $85MM guarantee over a five-year term.
As things turned out, the market just never developed for Moustakas. Potential landing spots dried up throughout the winter as organizations signed other players, found cheaper alternatives, or decided largely not to add to their MLB rosters.
Meanwhile, the Royals spent much of their own offseason trimming costs and waiting to see if they could coax back Moustakas’s long-time corner infield mate, Eric Hosmer. That pursuit ended without a deal, seemingly leaving the Royals positioned to embark upon a full-blown rebuild.
Bucking the leaguewide trend, though, Kansas City has elected to dedicate some cash to put a quality product on the field in 2018. It may not be enough to make for a clear-cut contender, but the Royals have certainly added a lot of productivity in signing Lucas Duda, Jon Jay, and now Moustakas in short succession.
Better still, the team has improved its 2018 outlook quite a bit without tying its hands for the future. It still seems that a longer-term outlook will define the team’s approach, and it’s certainly possible that some of the new additions will end up being traded at some point in the coming season, but the Royals promise to be competitive for the coming season.
Signing Moustakas does come with a cost beyond the payroll hit. Since he returned to Kansas City after declining a qualifying offer, the organization will not add a compensatory draft choice that it would have if he had joined Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain in heading elsewhere. The Royals will still add two selections after the conventional first-round of the draft for those departures. As for Moustakas, he’ll re-enter the market next winter (assuming the mutual option is not exercised) without the hindrance of any draft compensation, though he’ll also face stiff competition in an anticipated market full of stars.
There’s plenty to digest about this signing, needless to say. Most broadly, it’s as clear a sign as any about the market’s valuation of power. As the ball flies out of the yard at record rates around the league, lofty dinger tallies just aren’t paying in free agency.
It was bad timing, then, for Moustakas, whose power stroke is his chief attribute. He launched a career-high 38 long balls in 2017 and finished with steadily above-average overall offensive production. Despite tepid output earlier in his career, Moustakas has been a .275/.329/.496 hitter over the past three seasons.
Of course, that’s something of the rosy version of his attributes as a hitter. Moustakas managed only a .314 OBP last year and carries an ugly .305 career mark. While he doesn’t strike out much, he also doesn’t draw many free passes; in 2017, he finished with a career-low 5.7% walk rate. And his 17.8% HR/FB rate from last year sits well above his career average of 10.6%. Any decline in that number could be problematic. Statcast suggests Moustakas was fortunate to fare as well as he did, crediting him with a .331 xwOBA that falls shy of the .355 wOBA he ended up posting.
Teams certainly may also have been a bit wary of Moustakas’s abilities in the field and on the bases. Fangraphs’ total baserunning statistic marks him as one of the league’s worst baserunners, with -5.4 runs tallied in both 2017 and 2015 — suggesting that his intervening ACL tear wasn’t solely to blame. Defensive metrics panned his glovework, too, with DRS (-8 runs) and UZR (-3.1) both casting Moustakas as a below-average performer despite previously rating him at times as a quality defender at the hot corner.
In any event, those facts and figures are of no real concern to the Royals, who are intimately familiar with a player they drafted (second overall in 2007) and developed into a productive big leaguer. Whatever qualms they may have about his long-term outlook are nullified in this agreement, anyway, and there’s no denying that Moustakas represents a remarkable bargain at this rate of pay for a single season’s commitment. (Compare to Pablo Sandoval (five years, $95MM) and Chase Headley (four years, $52MM).)
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I’m betting he wishes he just accepted the QO.
Ya think?!?!?
Congratulations!!!! That’s the most pointless comment I’ve ever seen.
Well it 0bviously wasn’t entirely pointless, as it got you to respond, and this is a site for discussion.
Thumbs up!!!! You hit the nail on the head.
My record must have only lasted a couple of minutes because yours clearly beat it.
Lol. Of course he regrets losing out on 11 million dollars. Nobody thinks it’s pointless to state the blatantly obvious? Um …. okay.
But it’s also pointless to point out a pointless comment… so your comment up there is pointless, as is mine here.
You can save 15% when you switch to Geico…
Some of you just never learned how to play nice, you just have to be insulting?
Alright fair enough lol
Moose has to switch to Geico now, no other choice being 11 million poorer.
The redundancy department of repetition would like to have a conversation chat with you.
My college professor (who’s a lawyer) Always said:
“Repetition is good, Redundancy is bad.” 🙂 😛
good for the owners for a change
He should probably fire his agent over this one, he basically turned down a 1yr/17 million for a best case scenario 1yr/8.7 million
Yeah but it’s not like all the agents out there did much better. They ALL over-valued their clients—then paid the price.
I don’t think any agent would have advised him to take the QO over a multi year deal
At the beginning of the off season there were several relievers who weren’t really expected to make much but got substantially better contracts than predicted. It appeared that the so called “lower tiered” free agents beat expectations while the “higher tier” free agents got pennies on the dollar.
Bryan Shaw($27M), Jake McGee($27M) Tommy Hunter ($18M) Anthony Swarzak ($14M) all got more $$ than Moose (6.5M+ 2.2M incentives)
This is the golden age for Relievers.
This FA market saw 2B and 3B options, on the decline? with 1B/DH types going extinct Lol
Zach Cozart did well to get three years $38 million!
can’t blame the agent. this entire off-season has been odd
You can blame this one. Scott Boras misread the market for 5 months. I really think he let his ego get in the way of accepting Beyer multi-year offers which clearly weren’t going to be in the $85 mil and up range but dramatically better thank what he ended up with.
Think about what a guy like Todd Frazier was expected to get. 3/$33 or better? what he ended up with was 2/$17 mil. That was considered a great steal for the Mets. Moustakas was seen as the best 3b option on the market and he ended up with less guaranteed money than Frazier the 2nd best option. Shoot… Guys like Eduardo Nunez and Howie Kendrick ended up with several million nor in guaranteed money. These remaining guys need to wake up and get a 1 year deal and try again next year when the budgets are reset.
You can blame agent when it his big 3 or 4 that haven’t signed , Borass got sum splainin 2 do
“Moustakas was seen as the best 3b option on the market”
And maybe that’s the actual problem?
I mean;
– Injury Risk
– Career sub-Average hitter
– Horrific runner
– Can’t field
– Can’t get on base
– Plays a position very few non-rebuilding clubs need
– Is(/has an agent) demanding 5 years and mega millions
…how exactly did he become “the best 3b option on the market” to begin with, and even if he was “the best 3b option on the market,” does that label automatically make him worth his/Boras’ demands?
Reality is, people expected him to get much more largely because we are all used to teams signing horrific deals – not because he is truly worth what we figured he’d get.
Teams instead acted smartly tho, and in the game of musical chairs, the demands of Moose meant he priced himself out of a more desirable contract.
The agents works for the players so….
I agree with this 100%. And Moose is another example of a player only being worth what the highest bidder is willing to spend. Im glad teams have smartened up this offseason or atleast for one offseason. Im still curious to see if anyone overpays for Arrietta because that would be a contract to regret
You certainly can blame his agent. Somehow he seemed unaware that this younger group of stat-happy general managers had access to the same very descriptive statistics that even the fans have at their fingertips and he gave terrible advice to and set laughable expectations for players who will be paying this agent huge sums of money. And the explanation they’re hearing for the multi-million dollar mistakes is a lot of nonsensical clap-trap accompanied by delusional finger pointing.
The players accept the offers or turn down the offers. The agents don’t sign the contracts. I’m stunned at how hard this is for people to understand.
The agent is being paid to not just gather and present the offers, but to give advice on how fair the offer is. If your paid expert says that you should expect more, you are likely to heed that advice. When that bigger offer never comes, you are justified in questioning his expertise. “I’m stunned at how hard this is for people to understand.”
Yeah? And Dr’s work for patients but we go to them to seek their professional advise and follow through thinking that they know what they are talking about. If they are wrong do we blame the patient?
Boras has said publicly that he doesn’t believe in stats, which as an agent means you have no place in the marketplace. If that is how teams are evaluating the $ value of the player you need to negotiate based on those values or the teams will look elsewhere. You can certainly bring up things like leadership values and clubhouse demeanor but to just say :here is a player” and stick your hand out won’t get you far in negotiating contracts.
Great answer!
I think the only fireable offense so far is for Holland turning down the 3/52 deal that Wade Davis took from Colorado. Don’t know if he should fire his agent or the agent should fire him, but walking away from that was obviously a huge mistake at the time. Given his health risk and draft pick compensation, there is no deal, long or short, that I’d give him. If he wants to pitch before June, he’s going to have to go back to Colorado for peanuts now.
This year might have been his best shot at a long-term big-money deal. Donaldson looks like he’ll be available next year, along with a slew of better players, and Rendon and Arrenado are FAs in 2020.
I feel real bad for moose. Took a huge haircut in salary and wait till he finds out what K.C. banned. Hopefully he’s married. I wonder if the team will refund his subscription to Redtube?
This team won the WS a few years ago and figured the real problem was Redtube, not a weak bullpen or anything like that
Just shows more players should accept the qualifying offer
Which means that teams might be less willing to offer them, which means FAs like Moose won’t have draft compensation attached to them, which means it will be easier for them to get longer term contracts for more money, which will encourage teams to give borderline FAs QOs, which will…
Ah, the circle of life.
Well here’s the thing that was the intention of the qualifying offer in the first place the intention was for the home team to be able to retain your star players not to have every QO be rejected so yes accept the qualifying offer stay in your own town that’s the point
Horrible deal for him. I feel horrible. He had a better year than machado and yet he isn’t as prized . Great player
You feel horrible?
Why?
“Great player?”
That’s funny
His skills are debatable. But he was certainly worth more money than this.
Not really. He has a career .305 OBP. He is pretty one dimensional and his body type doesn’t really age well. He should have jumped at that QO. I love that front offices are coming to their senses in regards to players like this. Too bad the Baltimore missed the memo with Davis.
Granted her had his blemishes but no way should super utility hotkey man guys like Kendrick and Nunez end up with millions more guaranteed money and 2 years vs Moustakas’ 1 year deal of what, $7 mil guaranteed?
I thought Kendrick got overpaid, this is just ridiculous for Moose
He was offeted 17 million plus
With incentives he can make exactly half of what he was offered with the qualifying offer.
$2.2M Incentives max, with 450 plate-appearances.
right, plus the 6.5 equals 8.7, which is half of the 17.4 QO.
Yeah I know, I just wanted our audience to know, what those incentives were and how to max them. You were correct in your math. (Nice catch, 8.7 half)
You want to feel bad for someone, how about Neil Walker? All he has done his entire career is produce, and he can’t even get a major league contract.
But he produces only when he is healthy which is a big if.
Exactly. Walker’s problem is there are few if any teams with a need at 2B. As a GM I would steer clear of any player who has a history of back issues because they never truly go away. I could see him returning to MIL on a 1-year deal for maybe $5M
He is not a Great player. Look at the back of his baseball card. Very inconsistent guy and is 32.
A Nelson Cruz moment
Ultimate backfire
Got it stuck up da old Borass
Moose needs to find another agent. Boras is great but it spells doom when an agent has all the stars and has a monopoly of sorts.
How is Boras great? He just cost his client around $12 million this year alone!
Be a pig, and it will always come back to haunt you, should have to QO..wow
But…wait, I thought Boras had some magical power over teams? Boras works for his clients. Moustakas obviously took the deal. And yet, somehow people will still argue that Boras is ruining the game or whatever such nonsense.
Boras was great. We live in the now. The what-have-you-done-lately generation. This year he failed every single client in terms of expectations. Can you imagine how much worse things would’ve been for JD Martinez if the Sox had acquired their power hitter elsewhere? I wonder what Arrieta will sign for?
Eric Hosmer is a Boras client.
Had someone posted on this board in the Fall that Moose would have to settle for a 1 year deal for 1/2 the QO, he would have been laughed at.
Ouch! Boras dropped the ball on this deal.
How? It was the player who turned down 17 mill.
Based on whose advice? If it was Boras, he deserves much of the the blame.
Wow did Scott Boras totally screw Moose!
yikes…
Alllll that drama this offseason just for 6.5 million? Lmao
Are you 12?
Hind sight is 20/20 but I bet he wishes he would of signed the qualifying offer. He lost a lot of money this year.
Ya think?
what.the…
wow….ha
Looks like Boris was all talk on this one.
Funny usually Natasha does most of the talking.
Nice rocky and bullwinkle reference
Signs contract and immediately changes agencies
Yeah, right? I thought the same thing
Hahahaha! I feel for the guy, but man I love seeing Boras get egg on his face
How did Boras get egg on his face? Boras works for Moustakas. He sent along the offer and his client accepted it. That’s how this works.
Boras works for Moose and his job is to advise his client on what’s best for him. Boras doesn’t make the final decision but the type of agent he is, he has a lot of influence over players decisions. Ultimately it is on the player though. The egg on the face is in reference to Moose taking a huge pay cut which in turn means Boras made significantly less off the transaction…
I doubt Boras is doing this for the money at this point; i have a feeling he’s doing just fine with the 10+ million dollars he made on just the Hosmer deal.
I’m sure Boras is doing fine. He probably made 10 million dollars on commission on just the Hosmer deal
So…you’re saying it was ok then that Boras took the rest of the off-season off, and gave bad advise to his other clients? Because Hosmer accepted what is essentially a five year deal at 17mm per, when Boras was asking for 10 years at 200mm plus? Wow. Amazing what some people call a win.
I honestly don’t care about Boras’ well-being at all; the players sign the contracts, the players sign Boras as an agent/advisor. Other players who have been surprisingly unsigned this off-season don’t use Boras as an agent, This absurd hatred for a lawyer who happens to be good at his job is sort of odd to me. If any of these players wanted to sign the contracts they were offered they would have said yes; Boras can’t force them not to sign a contract. The Gomez extension a few years ago is a pretty good example of this.
As far as this market, it’s been bad for every player, not just clients of Scott Boras. There’s a lot of reasons for that, perhaps, but to somehow blame it on a single player-agent – one who is worth 110 million dollars doing his job effectively – is a little absurd.
Lol that’s great
Royals probably knew they wouldn’t get a draft pick from him
Wow.
so is this the smallest contract after a rejected qualifying offer?
It’s less than Desmond settled for in ’16
i’m pretty sure hellickson got more too lol
Hellickson didn’t reject his
6.5 Mill is pretty sad. Players may have a point.
I don’t know about that. He’s a guy coming off a career season which probably wasn’t sustainable, especially since it happened when power was up everywhere
Im not saying he should have got a big contract but he is worth more than what he was guaranteed
I don’t know. His OBP and base running are horrible, his defense sub par.
Point about what, that they over value themselves?
He turned down 17 million.
How do the players have a point. The QO with a draft pick isn’t anything new. Every year people talk about this endlessly and can’t fugure it out. NO TEAMS WANT TO GIVE UP A 1ST RD PICK! Why agents are constantly shocked by this every damn year. It’s like climbing up a tree, walking onto a branch with a saw and cutting behind you, falling down, hurting yourself and climbing back up and repeating the process over again wondering why it keeps happening. If you’re asking why this happens every year you’re aren’t nearly as smart as you think.
All these agents said oh we knew this was coming? You did? Well you’re stupid or a liar. Because if they knew this was going to happen they’re terrible at their jobs. It’s like getting the results of the Super Bowl before it happens and betting the house on the opposite outcome. Just stupid.
Exactly, all free agents can’t get big contacts, borderline players like moose should take QO too stymy clubs from offering them
I like how you made a whole little rant and don’t even know how it works. Forfeited 1st round picks dont exist anymore. You forfeit later picks now. This has nothing to do with the QO
You’re right my rant was about years past where it took longer than 5 years for people to figure out why all these bums aren’t signed every year.
This year nobody wants to give up a 3rd round choice for these bums
Phillies gave up their 2nd highest pick to sign Carlos Santana. That says it all right there how much these teams care about the later picks
Teams no longer give up a first round pick but I understand your point.
Hey, at least he got a ML deal!
Off a much better 4 year run (116 OPS+, to Moose at just 93) and a very similar pre-FA season, Chris Carter could only land a minors deal
Anyway tho, no, players don’t have a point – just look around the league and try to find a fit for Moose; it’s extremely hard to do. The few teams that could use a 3B are teams not expecting to compete, so of course they aren’t going to sign multi-year, multi-million contracts and sacrifice the DP.
Moving forward players are just going to have to make sure they aren’t demanding salaries which price themselves out of the market.
Welcome back! Probably, Boras’ biggest failure. If memory serves me correctly, when Stephen Drew waited it out, even after until the actual season started, he signed for the prorated version of the QO.. Drew got $10.1M of the $15M QO, he rejected.
The good news? Moose can never be issued QO’s again.
Stephen Drew didn’t sign until June 2 of that season, earning $10.1 million, of the $15 million QO he rejected.
Boras played the Moose contract, much worse. He advised his client to reject one year $17.4MM QO, to re-sign for one year $6.5M ($5.5M, plus $1M buyout on second year Mutual Option)
As a Royals fan, love this news. This week I have suddenly gotten actually optimistic about next year. The team can really contend.
Pump the brakes. Contend for 70 wins maybe.
I am being optimistic, but I can see things breaking right for this team and them winning 85 or so games. Hell, the Twins did it last year, and I sure did not see that coming.
Let me dream for a while. It’s spring training. It is nice to enter April with hope rather than resignation.
Sorry bit your wasting your time. Welcome to the new paradigm in sports fandom. One where fans root for their team to lose so they can hopefully win in 5 years.
It’s called being smart and realistic knowing if your team is any good whatsoever it will be due to the guys the team drafts the next two seasons
I agree if they put together a bullpen they are going to be an 80 win team at least.
In what world does replacing Hosmer and Cain with Duda and Jay result in more victories?
Because of the better bullpen rather than the dumpster fire it was last year. Of course thats if they can put together a better bullpen. If they do then yes i see a 500 or better team.
Congratulations bor.as.s
Hey, they were 2 for 4 (Escobar and Moose). You go 2 for 4 every game, the HOF is a lock.
Well kind of depends on your obp, slug, and D proficiency.
lol at that point no it wouldn’t.
yea what, i’ll go ahead with the bold call, .500 avg in an actual career, might sneak into the hall
idk if Escobar should count lol
Dang I thought he’d get 10-13MM when it was rumoured to be a one year deal. I guess the royals knew there were no teams out there viewing him as enough of an upgrade to lose a pick and have to commit multi year on a player who’s main asset is hitting home runs in a league where everyone does these days.
5.5 a year for a guy that’s 29, hit 38 bombs and has 85 RBI while hitting .272 last year? Geez that’s a steal. Like most FA’s I thought he was asking for too much money, but this is ridiculous.
The important number teams would’ve been looking at was his bad .314 obp. The power was nice, but it’s by far his best season in that category. He has regression written all over him
OBP isn’t everything. BA still matters. A walk every AB is nice if you’re a lead off guy. Somebody has to hit the ball and drive in runs though. 38 bombs is impressive.
I don’t write BA off completely, but it is the least important of a slash line. Had moose not had the power breakout that he had, his season would’ve been pretty bad, even with the relatively high average
No, it’s not.
He turned down 17 million.
So this is the worst contract ever taken by a player who rejected the QO. He should make a nice trade chip for the Royals this summer if he doesn’t tank this season and he’ll at least be able to try again next offseason without having the QO attached.
I still hate the idea of “putting a quality product on the field” during a rebuild. Royals were likely to compete with the Marlins and Tigers for the #1 overall pick this season but now they’ll probably lose that battle.
So why show up at all? And I am talking about not just the players, but the fans too. Why not just shut the doors to the big league team for 25% of the league every year until they decide they are ready to put a real team on the field. Let’s just stop kidding ourselves. If teams want to put a AAA team on the field, then let them do it in AAA and be done with it.
“So why show up at all?”
Because you’re not a fair weather fan. If you won’t have them at their worst, you don’t deserve them at their best.
Buddy I am a Rockies fan and have been since 1993, I KNOW losing baseball. I don’t mind bad teams, I have seen them a lot. I DO mind purposefully putting a bad team on the field for several years just to get high draft picks a la Houston. The Rockies might lose a lot, but at least they try. If you aren’t going to try, then why play the games at all. It makes the integrity of the game a joke.
The PLAYERS still try. They are the ones that matter. It’s not like they purposely put horrible players on the field. My guess is, the Royal will go with young promising prospects.
Being stuck in the middle IS purposefully putting a bad team on the field. Not contending now, not making moves to help the team contend later.
Yep
You’re either trying to win, trying to get better or committing to years of running in place
…not sure why anyone would cheer on the commitment to running in place
Because… THE PRODUCT ON THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!
I just can’t take anyone who says that seriously after someone in my Facebook group said it three summers ago to try and defend Preller not trading Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy. Like, he didn’t get Michael Fulmer for a guy he was going to lose anyway and basically had to give a guy who had been below replacement-level over the previous three seasons a qualifying offer but at least he still had his dignity?
I don’t know why any team specifically a small market team who went back to back World Series would ever need to put a quality product on the field afterwards. Frankly that should buy them about 4 seasons of straight losing before fans can even think about complaining. But fans like the players of today are severely entitled.
So the “little people” should just be happy that the Yankees and Dodgers let them win 33% of the time? Speaking of entitled. If anything after 19 out of 20 losing seasons, the Royals fans deserve about 5 or 6 more winning seasons.
Trying to “rebuild while putting a quality product on the field” isn’t going to get you ANY winning seasons.
Cardinals have been rebuilding and having winning seasons.
Cardinals only reload, they haven’t rebuilt in a LONG time.
Worked pretty well for the Yankees. Their major rebuild didn’t include a single season under .500. The Rangers have maintained a steady presence, winning the division title in 2016, and they have not had a full scale rebuild. Why should fans of other teams expect or deserve any less? There is nothing wrong with winning 81 games as long as you still improve. You don’t HAVE to do it the way of the Astros.
Yankees didn’t rebuild. They reloaded. And they can afford to spend on top free agents to fill their weak spots. Teams like the Royals and Padres can’t. Take it from me, the middle is the worst place to be in baseball.
Big time ouch here, but Moose will come w no draft pick strings attached next year. He’ll get his 3/50 from the Twins/Cards/Indians and retire knowing his grandkids won’t have to work.
Sure, why not create self-entitled brats who can avoid the real world..
Because $$$ automatically mean that? Maybe, they get into volunteer wiek. Maybe, they take low paying, but rewarding jobs.
I know a lot of non wealthy people who are brats and straight up jerks.
His family will be set, quit being jealous
Eh, one of the nicest people I went to high school with was the son of an NFL Hall of Famer who also did national TV sportscasts.
He was friendly and would talk to everyone outside his clique. Nerds, burnouts, anyone.. Not just BS, but actually talk to you.
I know the popular opinion is that the cards front office is inept and all,which they are far from, even if they were I still doubt they are moronic enough to give mous 3/50. It’s just not an upgrade at all. Not over gyrko or carpenter or if dejong slides over. Hell I don’t even know if mous is that big of an upgrade over Greg Garcia! Enough with mous to the lou people!
Hosmer’s a better player with a better track record, but how the heck did he get $140m in this market? He’s only a year younger than Moustakas.
Because as you mentioned, he’s a better player with a better track record. And the Padres’ FO really liked him for some reason.
$140m for a player of Hosmer’s caliber is insane this year. So was the 3/$60 the Phillies gave to 32 year old Santana, but that came before it was apparent this is a buyer’s market.
I don’t disagree there. Especially when the Hosmer signing forces Wil Myers into what was already a pretty crowded outfield picture.
Hosmer has Gold medal World Baseball, WS Ring, youth, and all the intangibles one might need. He might be last in UZR, 3rd in DRS —among all 1B since 2016, but he’s first in scoops. (Stat so intangible, I think you have to pay to Find MLB leaders in scoops) also one of best at picks,
Hosmer is the “anti-stat” player because his leadership, peripheral stats (probably best Scooper in MLB)
My guess is he plays well for San Diego, in alternating years, like he has his entire career, not opting out, and outperforms his contract when it’s all said and done.
If he doesn’t opt out of 3/$39m then you probably won’t be able to call what he’s doing “playing well.”
It’s all about value. IF the team needed him more, he’d be getting more, so this means he isn’t that valuable to them. We are witnessing a turning point in baseball that will rely heavily on data. Moose simply doesn’t have that much consistently good data to get him the big payday. Boras as his agent or not. It’s not “show me the money” anymore, it’s “show me the data”
Yeah, but it’s not about value alone.
The QO and luxury tax falsely depressed his real value.
He had one option (at this point).
So maybe his agent should have said 17.4 mil for one season is really good money maybe you should take it.
I’d have given him 2/20 now even, not sure why his market in particular completely cratered.
I don’t see the point in giving him a mutual option for 2019. All the reasons why one side would pick up that option are reasons why the other side would decline it and vice versa.
It still does get picked up sometimes though. Last one that i remember off the top of my head is JP Howell a couple of years ago. If the player performs, has already made money, and is happy where he is, why not pick it up.
Because they would be willing to pay him more if he were a free agent. That’s why.
Yet, you were given examples of why it is done.
Again, if he is happy, wants to stay and the team is happy, it works.
It is just pre renegotiating.
Why stay in KC for less money when he could stay in KC for more money?
There would be more money for the team to improve itself with other acquisitions
If players cared about this there would be no $200m contracts
There’s some who are in it for the money, but you can’t disagree that there are some that leave money on the table for the good of the team. The year that Ervin Santana sat in free agency for a long time, Bautista offered to restructure his deal so they’d have the budget to sign him. The players association wouldn’t allow it, but it shows they don’t always go for the money. I know it’s easy to say since I’m not in the MLB and don’t have the talent, but I’d like to think I’d leave 5 million on the table if I’m already getting 100 million.
Moustakas’ option for 2019 will not be picked up. It has been written.
I don’t see Scott Boras as failing at all. Mike Moustakas turned down the QO, not Scott Boras.. Boras likely gave him advice and it might’ve been to turn it down. That was a mistake but one that a number of players made. They didn’t see the market coming.
Moustakas had nowhere to play this year. No team wanted him as their long term starter and no one was going to give up a 2nd round pick and bonus money on a one year deal. I thought he’d have to go to Japan. That Moustakas got this much money is a surprise to me.
amen…
If you do not see that Boras screwed this up then you just must love the guy
Ok this is getting ridiculous. Somehow this isnt boras fault and you think a player of his caliber would end up in japan? Its like im living in a wierd bizzarro world.
Boras didn’t create the market that exists and he also wasn’t the only one who didn’t anticipate it. Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb aren’t represented by him. MLB TR projected. Yet, for some reason no one is saying their agents screwed up.
None of the free agents represented by other agents accepted the qualifying offers they were made. So, yes, Scott Boras screwed up the same way all the other agents whose clients turned down the qualifying offer screwed up. If the other agents saw the future and had their clients take the QO then you could put it on Boras. I’m guessing that none of you anticipated this either.
So where exactly did Scott Boras screw up after that? Moustakas, reportedly, got no offers from other teams, so it’s not like Boras screwed up by turning down an offer. He was faced with no team being interested until after the draft and somehow got the Royals to give Moustakas $6.5 million. That’s remarkable.
Scott Boras has had several clients in the past who have been hurt by the QO. This isn’t anything new. Frankly it’s getting really old that people are being intentionally stupid wondering why these guys are having a hard time getting signed. Either that everyone has dementia.
If Moustakas had told Boras “I want to take the QO” he would have signed the QO. That’s how an agent works for his client. The agent works for the player. This isn’t difficult to understand. Boras doesn’t sign the contracts, and plenty of his clients have signed below-market deals before this. Carlos Gomez’ extension, for example.
Moustakas may have been advised about the market by Boras, but in the end the decision to sign that QO was Moustakas’. Unless you think Scott Boras is a hypnotist or has some kind of magical powers. I doubt he does; he’s just a lawyer.
Scott Boras is getting market corrected. It’s been long overdue.
Thought I read he would sit out until June if he needed to. I’m not a big Moose fan, but $6.5MM is a steal. Even if he hits all his incentives to get to $8.7MM that’s still pretty good… can any of y’all imagine accepting less than $10MM what was originally offered? Big pill to swallow for Moose. He has to move on from Boras after this.
Wow. That is a steal for the Royals. I’m sure any team would want him with this deal. Moose definitely lost that gamble. It’s going to be a tougher off season for him next year. Best of luck to you Moose!!
Tougher offseason next year when he doesn’t have the QO attached and several teams have lost 3rd basemen to free agency? Dkbt
Which QO messed up the individual player the most?
Stephen Drew
Kendrys Morales
Mike Moustakas
Note, each have been anti-analytics, let’s pit teams against each other, Boras clients.
What we really want to know is whether there were other offers earlier that he spurned, or was there basically no interest from the start..
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Poor guy. Arrogance and bad advice led him to give up more $$$ for a single year’s salary than 99% of people will earn in their lifetime
I blame his agent
Drayton is laying back with his head on his pillow smoking a cigarette…..a relaxing smoke after getting laid!
And a whiskey on the nightstand!
He’d have been much better off taking the QO. Boras’s clients may want to remember this next offseason. This is an embarrassment for Boras.
Boras is not very wise
Scott Boras, according to a 2017 Forbes magazine article, is worth 108 million dollars. That seems, to me, like he has done his job as a player agent well.
I guess in a world where the Royals think Neil Walker is only worth an insulting minor league offer, 6 million for Moustakas is actually generous on their behalf lol.
Reasonable deal. Guess he should have taken the QO in retrospect. Hard for hi to imagine it would have ended like this…..but welcome back!
Moustakas numbers on the road the last 2 seasons are much better. LSt year 24 Hr 28/326/.582/908
Remember KC is an extreme pitchers park
Markets never really develop in a monopolized market, you just take what they decide to give you.
Boras is a skid mark on the underwear of baseball
He should fire his agent. Or his agent should make up the difference and give him the $11 mill he advised him NOT to take.
somewhere Scott Boras is laughing at you
I dont think Scott Boras will be laughing at anything as his reputation is destroyed
Moose was just part of an offseason where teams have been gun shy about free agents. Good news for KC, too bad for him. Market fluctuations happen for all we know next year will see the prices rising again with Harper and Machado on the market.
I don’t think a lot of him, but dang….I would’ve thought 10M for two years (20M) as reasonable, considering the insane salaries out there.
I have to wonder if this will give the Rockies pause for giving a qualifying offer to Charlie Blackmon. And you also have to wonder whether guys like Blackmon will accept regardless of whether they think they can do better. Because they will have seen that they might do better a la Hosmer, but they might do a lot worse too.
Prediction: Charlie Blackmon won’t get paid nearly what anyone thinks.
Career splits:
Coors: .346/.406/.566 – 1596 PA
Away: .264/.312/.428 – 1581 PA
At Coors he’s a HOF player.
Away from Coors he’s Mike Moustakas.
Every Rockies player has a split like that. Every player that ever will play for the Rockies will have a split like that. The Home/Away splits for the Rockies just make no sense. First, Coors is the best hitter’s stadium in the league,, so the home stats are obviously going to be better. There is no disputing that. Second, 3 of the 4 road stadiums the Rockies play in the most (SD, LA, SF) are the best pitcher’s parks in the league. Almost a third of the yearly road stats are just from those three parks. Yes the Diamondbacks have to play there the same number of times too, but they also get 9 Coors games a year to offset it a bit. Lastly, The Rockies are the only team in the league that does not get a boost on their road stats from Coors. Everyone always likes to look at road stats as a way of seeing how good a player is, but road stats are not equal for every team. They greatly favor a player that is based in a pitcher’s park.
Was there a point you were trying to make?
Once his agent’s hype and bluster clears, the reality is this is a player who is a bit better than Chris Carter and who, therefore, got paid a bit more than Chris Carter.
Oof! The Brewers didn’t offer the one dimensional slugger Chris Carter a contract, let alone a QO, even after he led the league in HRs. They were smart not to.
Rejecting the QO was only the first mistake, likely compounded by a too-high asking price scaring off other possible bidders (Angels, Giants, perhaps others).
Are you kidding me?
– A.J. Preller
*Insert jaw drop*… WOW…
WOW !!!!!!
THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE.
A SAD DAY FOR MOOSE.
I CAN’T UNDERSTAND HOW BORAS LET MOOSE WALK AWAY FROM A $17M QO?
IF THIS WAS THE OUTCOME.
And I can’t understand why you’re talking in all caps – I guess some things will always be mysteries
A sad day? Even if he didn’t get paid what he could have, he is still getting over $5 million this year to play baseball. I wish my happiest day was that sad.
How does a guy feed his family on only 6.7M?
IT MUST BE TOUGH BEING A BORAS CLIENT AND SEEING THE SEASON STARTING WITHOUT A CONTRACT.
“We’re closer to deals than we were two weeks ago. Some of those things are only a phone call away.”
I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS?
I GUESS THE CLOSER TO DEALS THAN WE WERE 2 WEEKS AGO IS ONLY SAYING WE ARE CLOSER TO OPENING DAY OR A PLAYER PANICKING. RIGHT?
HERE’S WHAT THE PHONE CALL AWAY SOUNDS LIKE:
MOOSE —- JUST GET THIS F-IN THING DONE SCOTT!
BORAS —– OK MOOSE, SOME OF THOSE THINGS ARE ONLY A PHONE CALL AWAY. I’LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET A CHANCE AFTER MY ROUND OF GOLF TODAY. SAY HI TO THE FAMILY.
CASHMAN —- HI SCOTT
BORAS —– MOOSE WANTS THE NYY. WHAT CAN YOU PAY?
CASHMAN — NOTHING SCOTT
MOOSE — CALLS KC ….. PLEASE PLEASE TAKE ME BACK FOR ROOM & BOARD.
AND THAT’S HOW A PHONE CALL AWAY WORKED OUT.
DON’T YOU JUST FEEL SO SECURE KNOWING YOU HAVE BORAS FOR YOUR AGENT?
MLBTraderumors – only off by 78.5M and 3 years.
Just kidding guys, but the gap on this one is big.
Amazing what can be accomplished when 30 owners collude to suppress salaries. Well done, MLB! Easy to criticize a guy for trying to get a big payday. The guy waited ten years to get to this point from the year he was drafted. May the worst team win, uh I mean lose.
Yes, yes, yes! Clearly the 30 teams came together and conspired against poor Moose so he would be forced to sign with the Royals for under 7 million because …well, reasons!
Mr. Eichhorn – there is a difference between collusion and collective wisdom that is driven by data.
I don’t feel sorry for Moustakas. He’s 28 years old and he’s made 18.7MM already, with another few million on the way.
Robert Eichhorn can you support your ignorance with facts?
Yes, the owners have never been guilty of collusion before.
Not THESE owners. The owners in the 1980s that were guilty are almost wholly different than the current owners. You can’t hold people responsible for a crime just because someone that used to have their job committed a crime. Otherwise you might as well blame the current Reds manager for betting on baseball because Pete Rose once did it.
I’m not sure he even knows what collusion is if he honestly thinks anything going on now looks anything like collusion
Nice to see Moose heading back to KC. Many folks in many fields have gambled and lost on occupational changes of scenery, but $6.5 million should temper some of that regret.
Did he seriously think he could do better than 17.4m? Common now, he’s a career .251 hitter, 305 obp, comming off a poor defensive season, and he missed almost the whole previous year with an injury. He doesn’t hit extra bases, has finished below .300 obp 3 times, and he’s already out of shape and fat in his 20s.
He should have seen this coming when Carter led the league with 41 bombs and found himself warming the bench and ultimately unemployed the following season. Hitting HRs alone doesn’t cut it anymore.
Mad props to GMDM
As a rebuilding club, the Royals need to acquire as many mid-season flippers as possible and over the course of a week, the Royals have signed Duda, Jay and Moose for just over $10m total.
Way to be opportunistic Moore
What the…? This has to be the dumbest move by Moose.
Good move for KC. If he plays well and they both decide long term is not going to happen, the prorated salary that is left should allow KC to trade him. Based on Jim’s return last year, it may not be great but it’s something and in the meantime you give your fans s something to cheer about.
Im sure Yankees would have done that type of deal if they didnt get Drury… Moustakas and boras really messed up this whole situation.
FIRE Boras and move on !
Taste it Boras
You knew he had no market when Borass tried leaking of fake stories of WSox being interested. Reinsdorf despises Borass . WSox have a ton of dough to spend and a need at third but they refused to bite and didn’t want to give up a draft choice on a rebuilding team that will be dynamite in a year or 2
It’s a good move for KC. Moustakas is a decent player, maybe a league-average bat in a good year who was helped by the homer spike last season. The defense isn’t great, and players like him don’t age well. In hindsight Moustakas obviously should have accepted the QO but he thought he could make more in this market and didn’t want to go on the market next year with Machado and Arenado also set to become free agents. SO he wanted to loc into multiple years now because going up against two clearly superior players next off-season isn’t something Moustakas was probably too jazzed about. He read the market wrong, as all kinds of players – represented by many different agents- have.
Obviously this feels like collusion, and I think the owners would be really dumb to try that again, but I think this is a result of the analytics revolution in front offices. Players like Moustakas just don’t have a ton of value going forward, and teams are smarter about paying for a player’s decline years; this is obviously not going to stand with the MLBPA, and it shouldn’t – players are grotesquely underpaid during their pre-arb years but have generally accepted that with the promise of a big free-agency payday. With manipulations of service time (See, Kris Bryant) and such the owners aren’t even pretending they’re trying to underpay their best assets – young, controlled talent.
The solution is to either allow for free-agency more quickly, which I hope the players push for in the next CBA. The REAL solution, and one which will never happen, is to get rid of the draft completely and make all high school seniors and College juniors free agents, free to sign with the highest bidder. I’m not naive; I know that will never happen, but in no other profession do you reach the highest level of achievement and then aren’t allowed to maximize your earnings as soon as possible.
agree with most of that, but sports is different from all other professions because the competition between employers IS the product.
I won’t even read a comment that long … get over yourself !
…fine, I’ll bite…
The real solution is the players should shut the f* up because they are still getting insane amounts of money and overall are taking a highpoint 56% of revenue despite their whining:
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/2/21/17035624/mlb-revenue-sharing-owners-players-free-agency-rob-manfred
So overall they are making as much as ever and is possible. Then you have guys turning down huge contracts (ie, Encarnacion 4/80 with 5th Option, or like the Arrieta extensions) in search for even more and more and more. And you still have guys signing for much more than they are worth (Hosmer, Santana, etc)
…and then you have the guys who are not as good as they talk themselves into believing and therefore struggle to get their extreme demands met – possibly waiting it out so long that they destroy their few opportunities and leave themselves with no options available (see Moose)
Based off what we have seen this season, it looks like gone are the days when owners will just allow players to set their own insanely inflated market – instead the owners have finally realized that handing over truckloads of money to guys just because thas what they demanded is not economically sound, and that they are better spent using that money in other ways
What we have is a market where horrible, franchise-crippling contracts are seemingly a thing of the past …and the players (plus some fans) hate it because, poor them
You seriously want that to go away and the first thing you need to do is get rid of the 2nd WC (and maybe even the first) – that is largely why so many are rebuilding so often. (Without them teams would probably go back to spending to run in place until they feel they have prospects worth really rebuilding around)
Then, get rid of the Luxury Tax – that is why you don’t have teams like the Yankees and Red Sox bidding up the salaries of every single FA available like they used to (they can’t since both have already compiled too many horrible contracts and are butting up against said cap)
Instead of a cap I guess you have to have a floor, which will force the poor teams into buying FAs instead of spending on their development and such
Lastly, I guess you have to get rid of trades for prospects and the draft, making it a free-for-all where money rules (as that is the only sound way to get rid of the value of young players, while protecting all young players, and give the 30+ year olds some of their old power back)
But things like cutting the serive-time before first FA isn’t going to do nothing buy damage to the players – already the 3 arbitration seasons are paying the guys their rough worth. Teams are still not going to be forking over endless 6 year deals to now 26-27 year olds tho; especially when they will have less playing time in the majors leading up to it (a few would benifit, but most all would be destroyed by it – losing out even on their arbitration rewards and instead having to settle for ‘I wonder if he’s really any good’ exploration contracts)
In the end, on one hand we just have a situation where players don’t dictate their own salaries resulting in the end of franchise-crippling contracts
On the other we have changes destroying teams capabilities to succeed to make a money-talks situation that will benifit the rich and destroy the poor …all to benifit the of certain players who want to demand insane franchise-crippling contracts without pushback
So, again – simplest and most logical solution is players shut the f* up already and enjoy the millions they do get offered to play a kids game (esp those who are average at best but refusing to sign for what he’s worth because he’s instead demanding the moon, like Moose)
I can’t respond to every point here but I will point out that the 56% mark you cite is misleading, as it includes minor-league salaries and signing bonuses – neither of which have anything to do with major league revenue. Major leaguers make around 43% of the major-league revenue.
And no player ever held a gun to an owner’s head and made him sign a contract. The owners are billionaires. It’s an absurd notion that the players are at fault for “forcing” the owners to sign them.
And the “kids game” thing is such a weak argument. Baseball is a multi-billion dollar industry whose sole product is its players. The people who create that product deserve to get paid.
“I will point out that the 56% mark you cite is misleading, as it includes minor-league salaries and signing bonuses”
So are you arguing that players don’t get the benifits, bonuses or money for being in the minors? Or are you somehow arguing that the teams don’t pay for the benifits, bonuses and minor leaguers out of theor own pockets? Because saying either is insanity
Yes, Players take home 56% of the money brought into the game
“It’s an absurd notion that the players are at fault for “forcing” the owners to sign them.”
And yet here you are throwing around words like ‘collusion” and saying drastic things need to change when owners don’t meet the insane demands of the players and the players are forced to face the consequences of their demands
“Baseball is a multi-billion dollar industry whose sole product is its players. The people who create that product deserve to get paid.”
…and getting about 56% of the incoming money going their way just isn’t enough for them, because poor them.
Ohhh, so you have a numbers conspiracy you see to hide the fact that your complaint is basically “Teams spend the same amount on players, but they are spending a higher percentage on certain players that I dont want them too”
How about this – how about we just say minor leaguers have to pay for free so the ML players get more of that money like you wish they did?
“As far as the minor leagues, they take in revenue as well. That revenue isn’t counted in MLB’s revenue stream at all”
…think it may have something to do with the fact that the teams don’t own those franchises and those franchises have nothing to do with the players/salaries of the players on said teams?
“No player ever forced an owner to sign a contract.”
And you again repeat some s* no one ever said so you can beat against that strawman instead of being forced to address the actual conversation. I already ignored your strawman once to try to get you back on topic instead – how about you try to find the topic this time?
I responded with numbers earlier but received the dreaded “your comment is awaiting moderation” and I don’t feel like going through the numbers again because it was a long post and really not terribly relevant. MLB players made 4,15 billion in salary in 2017; MLB’s revenue was 9 billion dollars. 4.15 is not 56% of 9 billion. MLB is cooking the numbers a bit WRT MLBAM but you can find that story easily by just googling it.
If they get rid of the draft and just make all HS seniors and college juniors free agents it would completely destroy competitive balance and teams like our Padres would never compete.
i just did the math and my entire lifetime of earnings is going to fall below 6.5 million so i think Moustakas is going to be able to squeak by financially. no need for the Go Fund Me Account.
all he has to do is produce similarly to 2017, and he can go back to market with no draft pick tied to him and get a real nice deal.
now, does he still need to pay his agent the standard commission on this 1 year deal?
Go back to a market with Arenado and Machado in it. Don’t forget that.
true, but those guys are in another stratosphere; not sure the direct impact.
and if those guys go to LA/NY or something, opens up Col and Baltimore to sign Moose..
This is obviously a sign that the owners are sick of Boras and his BS. Boras loves to blast the owners for not spending money but recent contracts have not Jenn good to teams (A.Rod, Fielder, Teixeira, Ellsbury,Werth, Etc)
On another note- Moose is never going to sign for more $ then what Jay Bruce received .
Nobody watches the games to see the owners become richer. Them colluding to make sure nobody signs Moustakas to a contract that doesn’t even come close to 1/10th of Pablo Sandoval’s is gross.
Except “Them colluding to make sure nobody signs Moustakas to a contract that doesn’t even come close to 1/10th of Pablo Sandoval’s is gross” is pure mindless conspiracy garbage with no reality behind it
Moose is an injury risk who can’t run, cant field, cant get on base, and because of it has seen his end-worth be below average in 4 of his 7 seasons in the majors. To top it off he was demanding at least a 5 year deal at a huge AAV to play a position not many teams even needed (esp those with a chance to compete)
So on one hand we have teams unwilling to meet his insane demands and choosing other more logical alternatives instead, with his waiting out his demands being met leading to all possibilities for a contract dying away.
On the other is this idea that teams must be forced to sign horrific deals that will hurt their franchise for years solely because that’s what the player demanded – and if they dont, that must mean they colluded because they’re evil or some nonsense
It’s just mindlessness – a pitiful excuse for a player making horrific decisions and having to face the consequences of said decisions
Moose was lucky the Royals were even willing to sign him at all. It doesn’t make much sense on their end as he doesn’t fit in their rebuild plan or long term plans. Outside of KC everyone with a pulse knows the Royals aren’t competing for anything and this is a signing based on sentiment. There really is no spot for him on the other 29 teams now and they aren’t going to get anything of note for him if they try to flip him later either. Although to Moose’s credit, he appears to be well aware of these realities and jumped at this humbling contract.
It’s such a low salary and it’s one year. Doesn’t hurt the rebuild at all. Gives loyal fans something in what might be a losing season.
other then the fact that they essentially gave up a draft pick to sign Moose for one year…unless he was going to sit out past the draft.
having 2 extra picks for losing Hosmer and Cain are still very nice but having another would have given their rebuild an even bigger boost. (though this pick would have been after round 2 in all probability instead of after round 1 like the picks for losing hosmer and cain and the CB pick)
He was going to sit out past the draft because no teams were interested in him. KC knew they could resign him cheap and possibly flip him for some value at the deadline rather than getting nothing for him.
Wow. Really wow.
I’ve been very vocal on here and elsewhere just how absurd player salaries have gotten, but this seems a bit light for the guy. Can’t believe he wasn’t able to secure a 2-3 year for $36mm. That would have been decent.
It also illustrates how horrific an offseason the Red Sox have had. I know most of you are going to raise an eyebrow and be like what!? Seriously though, they overpaid massively for JD and Moreland. Don’t care what anyone thinks, they flat out did. I guess who really cares anyway though. Moreland should have been picked up for $5.5mm for one year (that’s the value I give him) and JD should be on a 3 year $15mm per deal.
Honestly, after seeing this deal, nothing makes sense anymore. And while we can criticize some teams for sitting out altogether, I now understand why. Few have a good read on the market. Hey, at least for the Red Sox it’s still 2014 (SMH)…
He could have secured something like that if he’d begun the offseason looking for something realistic, like that.
The dude got screwed period. If I were him I’d drop Boras like a hot potato !
The embarrassment factor is bad enough, but to cost yourself more than $10 million! Talk about a poor choice. This one is right up there with the umpires union decision to resign en masse to force ownership to give them what they wanted all those years ago.
This is likely caused by the impact the QO had on Moose and many others.
I’m guessing Boras told Moose to hang in there until after the draft, when no QO would apply.
Teams won’t just give up their draft picks so easily anymore.
The draconian salary cuts that have already effected the rest of us are apparently finally hitting professional sports.
Egos and agents… dangerous mix.
For $6.5 M, I wonder why other teams like the Mets or Yankees or someone with more of a need/not rebuilding didn’t offer up say $8-$10 MM for 1 year
You don’t need to wonder. The Mets got their 3B and he had no compensation attached. The Yankees didn’t want to give up a 2nd, a 5th, and $1 million in bonus money for 1 year of a guy who isn’t better than Brandon Drury.
THE QUALIFYING OFFER IS WHY
Wow, that contract is so low a Cardinals fan would be impressed.
Good sign!
Moose had a career best year with a whopping .835 OPS good for a stunning…… 49th out of all qualified players. Very average for an offense first guy. He stole 0 bases and fangraphs has him ranked 17th out 22 third baseman in defense. He is turning 30 this year and would cost a team draft picks. This is not surprising. Boras just hypes up guys with unrealistic expectations and costs them money in the end.
Unless you just gave the Royals that great of a deal I feel like this is a failure on the part of a lot of other front offices, they may not value Moose like his type used to be but still if you could have got him at 2/14-16 or 1/7-9 that’s a good deal still but again maybe he just decided if he’s going to settle for that then he mine as well just go back to KC for whatever they would give him.
So teams should have waited around for months on the off chance Moose lowered his demands, leaving their 3B hole open the whole time incase they are the one who happens to land Moose?
That’s foolishness – eventually everyone will (and did) move on as they can’t wait around forever until a guy finally wakes up to reality.
There is no failure of any other front office. Only failure is Scott Boras
Really surprised Yankees didn’t sign him. If he can hit 38 at Kauffman (club record) think he could hit 50 with Yankees short porch.
The terms of the deal are stunning, but I have to wonder if Boras contacted other interested teams (if there were any) like STL and said, “Look, can you do better than 1 year/$6.5M?” You can’t even classify this as a pillow contract.
Even though he could re-enter the market next offseason along is Machado and Donaldson ahead of him, BAL and TOR will need a 3B, but from this point forward Moustakas could be looking at a series of 1 or 2 year contracts for the rest of his career.
Right! And we don’t know what Boras told Moose. For all we know, Boras told Moose this might be your best shot at a big deal, which is probably true for the reasons you pointed out.
Moose got hoodwinked by Boras. He probably believed he was getting a massive deal somewhere and then…lost $10 mil by not taking the QO. I would feel bad for the guy, but that is greed on display.
I don’t get the move for K.C. They aren’t projected to contend and they lost a pick. It makes them likely to win a few more games, but that is it. I guess they want to trade him when injuries happen?
YES, MOOSE WILL BE TRADED AT THE DEADLINE
They do not lose a pick for resigning their own free agent and they do not even lost the pick they would have gotten if some other team signed him for $50 million or more as no one was paying the $50 million
They would have gotten a pick after Competitive Balance Round B if someone else signed him. But it won’t be too surprising to see him traded for something better than that at the deadline.
And how many Boras clients are still on the unemployment line?? Why any player chooses that ass-clown is beyond me
No team was willing to beat $8.7 million? I know his OBP is pretty bad but surely he has more value than that. Atlanta, NYY, Angels all could have used him. Luckily, he will have another go around next year and will still be young enough to score that multi-year pact. The Yankees will have a nice fall back option if Andujar flops and they don’t land Machado. If they can land him next year on a Chase Headley type contract they will be very fortunate..
Of course teams were willing to beat that offer …months ago
But months ago he wouldnt have accepted their offers because he was demanding 5 years and mega-millions
He sat on his demands so long that everyone who wasn’t willing to meet them moved on, leaving him without anyone left to bid on him in the end.
He priced himself out of the market and eventually had to accept whatever just to get back into it
still hard to believe the guy could have a career year heading into free agency and end up getting paid less than he made last year.
would love to know the dialogue between Boras and Moose before this signing- just doubting that Boras wanted him to do this, but Moose just couldnt wait anymore and wanted to play and get something- who knows it could be as simple as his wife making some big purchases based on what Boras was promising, and bills are coming due.
Well, there is the issue that 2017 wasn’t actually a career year tho too
Afterall, in 2015 he had a 3.7 WAR. In 2011 he had a 3.4 WAR. Last year he had just a 2.2 WAR – which is basically average
So while I agree it’s hard to believe he didn’t get more than he did, the only reason he didn’t get more is for months he was demanding a long, huge contract off a very average season. His demands were just too out of whack for reality (which is why everyone looks at Boras likely being the main issue – he’s known for that kind of stuff)
He turned down a qualifying offer of $17M to sign with the same team for $6.5M… smh
Hindsight is 20/20. Nobody on earth predicted he’d get less than 17 million dollars at the beginning of the offseason.
The next question on the list
Where does arrieta sign and for how much/long
I’m not sure how you blame anybody but the market/owners. Moose turned down the QO as most players do…then never received another offer. Boras may be a blowhard jerk, but any agent would’ve told Moose he’d receive another, better offer.
It’s the owners? He’s 29 now with only 2 seasons of a WAR above 2. That’s not exactly a star player. Boras filled his head with unrealistic expectations and Moose believed him; the market didn’t bear it out because 1) owners are shying away from long contracts after Pujols, Prince Fielder, etc. debacles, 2) he’s not a superstar, 3) many teams are trying to get below the luxury tax limit to both go after next year’s free agent bumper crop and reset the penalties so they have to pay less when they land a true star.