The Nationals may not have as much financial flexibility as it seems this offseason, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post observes. The Nationals have $112MM committed to 23 players for next season, Janes estimates, adding that MLBTR’s projected salaries for their seven arbitration-eligible players push the number to $152MM. However, for competitive balance tax purposes, that figure would be closer to $140MM, per Janes, who writes that Washington does “not want to come close” to the CBT in 2019. In the end, Janes expects the Nationals to spend around $180MM, which could include their top free agent – superstar outfielder Bryce Harper – whom they want to re-sign. Regardless of whether Harper stays in D.C., the club will still need help in several other areas, Janes points out. However, thanks to the money that’s already on the Nats’ books, Janes cautions that it’s going to be difficult for them to spend freely this winter.
Now the latest from Baltimore:
- Even though the Orioles don’t have a true general manager at the moment, they “remain open to moving anyone in the right trade,” Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com writes. Front office questions aside, it’s unclear how many valuable trade chips Baltimore even has, given that it’s wrapping up a 47-win season in which it dealt a slew of established veterans. Reliever Mychal Givens would likely be in demand, and Kubatko cited him as a possible trade piece earlier this week. Speculatively, middle infielder Jonathan Villar and right-hander Dylan Bundy are also among O’s who may find themselves in trade rumors this offseason.
- The Orioles, who have more international money available than any other team, are known to be battling with the Marlins for Cuban prospects Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr. and Sandy Gaston. While it has been suggested that the Mesa brothers will sign with the same team, they’re not necessarily a package deal, Kubatko reports, writing that the two “aren’t joined at the hip.”
- The Orioles made an eyebrow-raising move in August when they traded $750K in international money to the Phillies for minor league first baseman Jack Zoellner. It turns out the Phillies may have released Zoellner had they not found a taker for him, according to Kubatko. Per Kubatko, Philly was “far less enthusiastic about Zoellner” than Baltimore’s front office, which was then led by since-fired GM Dan Duquette. Zoellner doesn’t rank among Baltimore’s top 30 prospects at MLB.com, and, as Kubatko notes, didn’t stand out in Rookie ball from 2017-18 despite being old for the level.
Another good reason to have fired Duquette.
Yeah that move looks even worse now—and it already had raised skepticism.
Reason 4867 why the orioles are at the bottom of the barrel.
Dylan Bundy allowed 40 home runs in his last 140 innings. Not making any sort of statement, that’s just absolutely insane.
He could be a very good pitcher. The fastball (too flat) needs to improve, but the slider and changeup combo are starting to look very good. Under the right system, he could be dominant.
Bundy and Givens are two more of Baltimore’s Cavalcade of Overrated Pitchers. Givens had a few cheap saves, but was 0-7. Yet people are still looking at him like the second coming of Mo Rivera. Bundy has been a bust, considering he was going to be the next Jim Palmer.
You sound like someone who’s watched them pitch a lot.
Did you happen to watch the 2016 WC game? Givens mowed down the Blue Jays Murderers row of RH hitters fairly easily. 7 up 7 down. That’s where his intrigue comes from, can be dominant and unlike Arrietta/Gausman/Miley, he has proven it already.
As far as Bundy he starts off strong and gets worse as the season goes, 2017 he was dominant the first 2 months. He’s the type of guy a team like the dodgers or astros get for a few expendable prospects and turn him into a great contributor to the team
I know a MLB season is long and people are judged on that—understandably—but did anyone see Dylan’s work from the beginning of this year? It was at times dominant. So, he’s exactly the kind of guy who could be very good, either w O’s or someone else.
Hodge hammers anything with Baltimore attached to it. Honestly cracks me up. Who ever hyped Mychal givens up to all hell? He’s a good reliever and that’s about all I’ve heard anyone say about him.
Exactly. Plus, it was Calvary, not Cavalcade, and it included a previous generation of pitchers entirely.
It’s “cavalry.” C-A-V-A-L-R-Y. Not Calvary. Very, very different things.
Cavalcade is a procession of people whereas a Cavalry comes in to support or assist. I think cavalcade may be more appropriate. However, Gomer is a bit overboard in his criticism of the two.
The $112M is for 6 players, not 23. The error is in the original article.
You hate to kick them when they’re down, but cmon Orioles. Just when everybody thought they were turning a corner, they revert back to their old ways and trade for a bad, non prospect with IFA money.
Yeah when they could’ve waited until he got released and get him for a couple of quarters.
Philly was in no rush to deal him. We could’ve at least waited until the Mesa situation worked itself out to give up that money. If we miss on the mesa’s it’s likely that you’ll see more of those kind of deals because it’ll be hard to spend all that if we whiff on these guys.
Connor, I believe those numbers for the Nationals are off. 30 million of Strasburg’s salary is deferred without interest in 2019. Their payroll should be around 78.8 million without the arbitration-eligible players or pre-arb players factored in. Worth noting, 6 million of that is a club option for Doolittle.
For luxury tax purposes Cots has them around 106M (included in that number: 15M in benefits, 2.25 in 40 man slots and 6 players). That doesn’t include the controlled players and or arb eligible. So the numbers appear correct.
Janes’ 112 figure is clearly a simple calculation of the contracted players full salaries, which doesn’t account for the deferred salaries, and the CBT, according to Cots, is around 155 with everything figured in. Janes suggests it’s around 140. The 78.8 I mentioned was strictly the guaranteed contracts.
It’s not a big deal, but if they bring back every arbitration-eligible player at the estimated projections, along with the pre-arb cast, they’ll be around 50 million shy of the threshold.
There’s room for Harper, but addressing the rotation might get a little tricky.
I’m not sure, she clearly distinguishes the difference and she also mentions the difference in real money vs CBT figures. So assuming she’s discussing 112 that’d be the typical number of what I mentioned earlier+the option of Doolittle. It’s exactly 112 M. Assuming they stick with same team with 50M in arb raises it’s still around 162M. That’s without adding. controllable players. It’s extremely interesting tbh, and not at all clear, but man it sure seems like Was has sacrificed the short term for some really tricky long term. I completely get what you’re saying, which is what is making this an intriguing situation to watch. It just seems like this is a tricky situation in general.
Totally tricky and risky. Strasburg isn’t the only one, either. Parts of Scherzer’s salary over the next 3 years is also deferred.
I can’t help but think that those moves were made to prepare for a possible Harper extension.
Whoever Victor Mesa Sr. is must be either super obsessed with himself or just numbingly unimaginative.
George foreman says hi
Or he is really bad at remembering names
If i’m Victor Mesa Jr., i don’t want to play in my big brother’s shadow. I get the upside to sticking together, but there is a downside.
the downside would be signing with Baltimore.
Funny. The Mets are a real world class organization.
For me to poop on
It’s not like they’d be really be playing together for a long time anyway. You’re talking 3-4-5+ years down the road, if at all.
The Nats need at least one SP, a Catcher, and maybe a 2B, not to mention the always shaky Bullpen. They don’t have enough top prospects to make many trades, so they’ll have to sign some Free Agents. IMO, they can’t afford the contract Harper/Boras want, and they can’t afford to waste time this offseason to see how things shake out for Bryce. They should make him a QO and then go spend on a starter and catcher.
An outfield of Soto, Robles and Eaton is better than most anyway.
They could afford the Harper Deal. They’d just have to move robles and kieboom to fill the other holes. And I don’t know if that is the best strategy. Getting Barraclough for IFA money is a start, Joe Ross’ return will also help. Whether you deal Robles or not, Idk if you can pencil Eaton in for a full season. He’s been plagued by injuries since coming to DC. MAT makes that a little easier but it still has to be a concern. With the Braves rising the Nats will have to get better at a lot of spots and that’s probably hard if you sign Harper. If they sign harper and can move robles for a SP, naybe they could look at a guy like Dozier on an affordable bounce back deal and find a couple of other reclamation projects for the pen. But they to have a closer. Whether it’s doolittle or someone else.
Problem with resigning Harper and trading Robles is CF. Neither Harper or Eaton can play the position very well. They’d be better off trading Eaton.
I’d rather let Harper go and spend the money on two SP. I’m not convinced that both Roark and Ross will be healthy/productive. You know SS will be injured at some point, and they still need a lefty.
Maybe let Carter Kieboom switch to the keystone, if he’s ready for the bigs?
Kiebooms numbers were pedestrian at AA. Can’t imagine they go into the season with him in mind at 2B. Maybe he can force his way up by the AS break but I doubt that’d be plan A. Howie Kendrick is still there. Do they decide the budget is too tight and they have more pressing needs and roll with him until a potential kieboom call up? Maybe. It seems easier to fill more holes without Harper but taking his bat out of the lineup is tough. MAT is a good defensive CF if they didn’t like Eaton there but it’s tough to give up on Eaton at such a low point in value. With or without Harper this team is flawed. They have scherzer and stras so you can’t rule them out but they have a lot of areas they could stand to improve.