Mariners Sign Ramon Vazquez
The Mariners signed infielder Ramon Vazquez to a minor league deal, according to a team press release. Vazquez, who originally came up in the organization, will stay in extended spring training before being assigned to a minor league team. The Pirates are on the hook for Vazquez's $2MM, minus a big league salary if he makes it. The Bucs released Vazquez eleven days ago.
Vazquez, 33, hit .230/.335/.279 last year in 239 plate appearances last year, playing second base, shortstop, and third base and dealing with a knee injury. He can be useful against right-handed pitching.
Free Agent Deals By Agency
MLB teams spent over $850MM on free agent contracts during the 2009-10 offseason. 45 different agencies were involved in those 122 Major League signings. Here's a look at the 15 agencies that brokered at least $10MM in free agent contracts:
- Boras Corporation: $165.05MM. That's less than half of the previous year's total, but still the best this winter. About 73% of Boras' total came from Matt Holliday. Boras has Manny Ramirez, Carlos Pena, Adrian Beltre, and Kevin Millwood next winter.
- ACES: $105.325MM. The Levinson brothers' agency had five players sign for over $10MM: Chone Figgins, Placido Polanco, Marlon Byrd, Jason Marquis, and Fernando Rodney. Aubrey Huff and Ross Gload are other clients. Many of ACES' deals this winter seemed to favor the player rather than the team.
- Octagon: $98.55MM. John Lackey's deal makes up about 84% of the total.
- WMG: $89.55MM. The Wasserman Media Group's contracts included Randy Wolf, Joel Pineiro, John Grabow, Rich Harden, Hideki Matsui, Jason Kendall, and Vicente Padilla.
- CAA: $83.575MM. Creative Artists Agency brokered big deals for Jason Bay and Ben Sheets.
- Hendricks Sports: $42MM. Just two deals for the Hendricks brothers: Aroldis Chapman and Andy Pettitte.
- SFX: $36.85MM. Wasserman acquired SFX a few years ago, and if you combine their totals they're #2. SFX brokered deals for Noel Arguelles, Adam LaRoche, Miguel Tejada, Vladimir Guerrero, and Bengie Molina, among others.
- Beverly Hills Sports Council: $30.845MM. They did Jose Valverde's two-year deal, and were also behind a bunch of one-year deals, including Octavio Dotel, Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Gregg, and Russell Branyan.
- Peter Greenberg: $21MM. Marco Scutaro and Rafael Soriano were Greenberg's big fish.
- Legacy Sports: $18.4MM. They brokered deals for Brad Penny, Danys Baez, and Orlando Hudson.
- Barry Meister: $17.875MM. Brandon Lyon's $15MM deal is about 84% of the total.
- LSW Baseball: $17.7MM. Starters Jon Garland and Brett Myers led this agency's deals.
- The Sparta Group: $17.25MM. Basically, Mike Cameron's contract.
- Career Sports: $13.55MM. Mark DeRosa's deal, mainly.
- Representation for next winter's big-name free agents is spread evenly, though Legacy boasts Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn while CAA has Derek Jeter and Derrek Lee.
- Sosnick Cobbe Sports: $12MM. They make the list for Freddy Sanchez's extension.
2011 Contract Issues: Seattle Mariners
The Mariners face three contractual options after the season:
- Ian Snell has a $6.75MM club option. If Snell's 2010 work resembles his 2008-09 performance, they'll let him go.
- Jose Lopez has a $4.5MM club option with a $250K buyout. If the option is declined, Lopez will still be arbitration-eligible. Lopez may be traded at some point, but the option appears likely to be exercised.
- Erik Bedard has an $8MM mutual option that can increase based on performance. As usual, we find it unlikely for both sides to exercise.
The Mariners free agents after the season include Cliff Lee, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Sweeney, and Eric Byrnes. The group is earning over $12MM this year, led by Lee. About $18MM will be freed up if everyone aside from Lopez departs.
An additional $11.5MM must be allocated toward players under contract, with Felix Hernandez's $3.5MM the biggest bump. The Mariners will owe raises to Ryan Rowland-Smith, Garrett Olson, Jack Hannahan, Sean White, and Jason Vargas as first-time arbitration players. David Aardsma and Mark Lowe go for a second time, Brandon League a third, and Casey Kotchman a fourth. Some of these players figure to be non-tendered.
Despite a busy offseason, the Mariners trimmed payroll by about $8MM this year according to Cot's Baseball Contracts. Payroll will have to come back up for the Mariners to have spending money in the offseason.
Data On Locking Up Young Pitchers
With the help of Cot's Baseball Contracts and other sources, MLBTR has compiled data on 66 contracts given to young pitchers over the past ten years. The criteria for the list was that at least one arbitration season was bought out in the pitcher's multiyear contract. Over $1.4 billion has been committed to these pitchers. Data to consider:
- Locking up young pitchers has never been more popular. 11 contracts have been signed so far in 2010, more than any other year. The trend seems to have taken off in 2005, after which point 7-9 young pitcher contracts were signed each year.
- Will we ever see a deal for a pitcher that covers a player's first season, like Evan Longoria's? It hasn't happened yet, but 11 pitchers have signed deals that included their second year of service time. James Shields took more of his money upfront than most, in that he earned $1MM in his second year of service time and $1.5MM in his third. Most players, going year to year, earn $500K or less before reaching arbitration.
- Tim Lincecum, of course, will earn the most in a season that would've been his first arbitration year – $8MM. Next is Cole Hamels at $4.35MM. Typically the first arbitration season goes for about $3MM (in recent years). The second arbitration year is typically around $6MM, the third about $8.5MM. To buy out a young pitcher's arbitration years, the cost is usually in the $13-17MM range.
- 47 of the contracts bought out the first free agent season; 20 of those are club options. At $20MM, Justin Verlander will be paid the most for his first free agent season. At $80MM, Verlander's total contract value is also the highest. Aside from Verlander and Felix Hernandez, most pitchers gave up their first free agent at a $7-14MM price.
- Six pitchers gave the club options on multiple seasons. Brett Anderson, Ian Snell, Adam Wainwright, and Ubaldo Jimenez allowed two club options, while Shields and Fausto Carmona gave three.
- Older data may be missing, but the Diamondbacks appear to lead with six young pitcher deals (two for Brandon Webb). The A's are next at five. As far as we can tell, the Braves, Dodgers, Mets, Nationals, and Orioles have zero.
Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this research.
2011 Contract Issues: Cleveland Indians
The Indians face three contract options after the season:
- Since he's still on the disabled list, there's no chance Kerry Wood gets the 55 games finished needed to make his $11MM 2011 option vest. It'll stay a club option, and the Indians (or any other team) will very likely decline.
- Third baseman Jhonny Peralta, also a trade candidate, faces a $7MM club option with a $250K buyout. This will be declined barring a surprising season.
- Russell Branyan has a $5MM mutual option, and I'm not expecting both sides to exercise.
The Indians are paying Wood, Peralta, and Branyan $17.1MM this year. They'll free up another $14.1MM with other departing free agents, led by Jake Westbrook's $11MM.
Players under contract will receive a total of $4.6MM in raises, led by Grady Sizemore with a $1.9MM bump. The Indians also have multiple first-time arbitration players, led by Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera. Rafael Perez will go for a second time. With over $30MM coming off the books, the Indians could lower payroll even further and still cover their raises easily. Aside from Travis Hafner's contract, the Indians are looking lean for 2011.
Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.
Eric Gagne Retires
Eric Gagne has retired, reports Martin Leclerc of Rue Frontenac (English translation here). Gagne explained that he feels great physically, but has lost the desire to pitch. The 34-year-old was released by the Dodgers a month ago.
Gagne's run of dominant closing for the Dodgers resulted in a 1.79 ERA, 13.3 K/9, and 152 saves over 2002-04, spanning 247 innings. Each of those years, he made the All-Star team and received Cy Young and MVP votes. He won the Cy Young in '03, saving 55 games with a 1.20 ERA and 137 strikeouts in 82.3 innings. Gagne earned about $40MM in his career, according to Baseball-Reference.
The blemish: Gagne appeared in the Mitchell Report for using human growth hormone in 2004. He later explained to T.J. Simers of the L.A. Times that he thought it'd help with a knee injury.
Odds & Ends: Evans, Sheffield, Slowey, Hechavarria
Links for Thursday…
- Slate's Dan Morrell discusses the influx of Cuban talent into the Majors, as well as the many quality players who have not defected.
- Outfielder Terry Evans cleared waivers and was sent to the Angels Triple A club to clear a spot for Scott Kazmir, reports Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times. Evans, 28, hit .291/.341/.520 at Triple A last year, his third stint at that level.
- Gary Sheffield has "something on the table" to look at after he returns from vacation, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports suggested a few weeks ago that Sheffield is talking to an NL club (not the Nationals).
- Kevin Slowey said he wouldn't mind a contract similar to Nick Blackburn's four-year, $14MM deal, according to Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Slowey will be arbitration-eligible for the first time after the season.
- Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star tweets a correction to something he wrote yesterday, explaining that Adeiny Hechavarria does indeed qualify for a fourth option.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that the Yankees essentially chose Javier Vazquez over Joel Pineiro. Sherman feels that Vazquez has "re-opened the wounds from 2004" with his two subpar starts.
Stark On Bell, Nathan, Oswalt, Dunn
Let's check in on the Rumblings and Grumblings of ESPN's Jayson Stark…
- One exec Stark spoke to implied the Padres may not be motivated to trade closer Heath Bell because he's under team control through 2011 and signed at $4MM for 2010. Bell's salary could double in '11, though, and I'm not convinced the Padres will want to pay it.
- Stark talked to a GM who thinks Bell makes sense for the Twins as a backup plan in case Joe Nathan needs a 16-month Tommy John recovery period to get back to normal. Stark learned that a significant part of Nathan's salary this year is insured, so that frees up some money this year. But again, will the Twins want to pay nearly $20MM to two relievers in 2011?
- Should Houston's troubles continue, Stark wonders if Roy Oswalt would consider waiving his no-trade clause. He says a friend of Oswalt believes the pitcher's preferred destinations are Atlanta, St. Louis, and Texas. It's hard to see those clubs making a play for Oswalt, especially with his large salaries for '10 and '11.
- Stark guesses the Nationals are more likely to trade Adam Dunn before the deadline than sign him to an extension. Last we heard, ESPN's Buster Olney said there were no ongoing extension talks.
- Twins catching prospect Wilson Ramos has been labeled as one of the game's best trade chips, but assistant GM Rob Antony says that "right now, we'd lean toward keeping him."
- If he can't find a big league job, Kevin Millar could sign with the St. Paul Saints, where his pro career began. Millar was released by the Cubs on March 30th.
Jason Bergmann Designated For Assignment
The Nationals designated pitcher Jason Bergmann for assignment to make room for Scott Olsen, tweets MLB.com's Bill Ladson. Ladson says the Nats were planning to demote Jesse English, but Bergmann's one-inning, two earned run performance yesterday against the Phillies changed their mind. GM Mike Rizzo will attempt to trade Bergmann, writes Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.
Bergmann, 28, posted a 4.50 ERA, 7.5 K/9, and 4.7 BB/9 in 48 relief innings last year, allowing seven home runs. He posted a 1.16 ERA in 23.3 minor league frames, though his peripherals were unimpressive. Bergmann's flyball tendencies have proven problematic, and he's also bounced between starting and relieving a few times. In their '05 Handbook, Baseball America noted then-Nationals scouting director Dana Brown's familiarity with Bergmann. Brown now works under Alex Anthopoulos in Toronto, so maybe the Blue Jays will take a look.
Olney On Cruz, Sanchez, Dye
Buster Olney's ESPN blog is always a good read; here are a few hot stove nuggets to ponder…
- Olney reminds us that Nelson Cruz cleared waivers in the spring of '08. That's always a good time of year to sneak a guy through. At 26, Cruz had struggled in the Majors in '07 but raked in 187 Triple A plate appearances. Because he figured things out later in his career, he won't reach arbitration until after this season at age 30.
- Olney notes that Jonathan Sanchez "seemed to come off the board" as a trade candidate after his July 10th no-hitter last year. The Giants have Sanchez under team control through 2012. Matt Cain is under contract through '12, and Tim Lincecum is under team control through '13.
- Olney on the Jermaine Dye-racism suggestion: "To suggest that there is a general reluctance, across a 30-team landscape, to sign Dye because he is black is completely absurd." Talking to Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe, Bill Hall asks more nuanced questions.