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Angels’ Future Payroll Features 4 High-Dollar Players

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2020 salary terms still need to be hammered out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Next up is the Angels:

(click to expand/view detail list)

Dipoto On Mariners’ Plans For Top Prospects

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The Mariners never expected to contend in 2020, but a lost or truncated season stands to impact the club’s developmental timeline. GM Jerry Dipoto discussed his organization’s approach, especially with regard to its top prospects, with Larry Stone of the Seattle Times.

Dipoto acknowledged the tightrope the team is likely to encounter with exciting young talents such as Logan Gilbert and Jarred Kelenic. On the one hand, the original plan was for such players to open the year “in developmental mode” in the upper minors. And while it went unsaid, it stands to reason that the Seattle front office isn’t anxious to burn up service time unnecessarily.

On the other hand, Dipoto is cognizant of the need to squeeze in as much development as possible. These guys need reps and seem unlikely to find them at Triple-A in 2020. Getting prospects the requisite playing experience “becomes a little more challenging when there may not be a league for them to go play in,” Dipoto explains.

“We are very committed to the idea that their development is more important to us than virtually anything else we’re going to do this year,” says Dipoto. “We’re still committed to that idea, and this will just be a delicate balance for not trying to rush them, but make sure they get the competition reps to the best of our ability.”

It sounds as if it’s still up in the air whether and for how long we might get a glimpse of these highly regarded youngsters. That’s all presuming there’s a season at all, of course.

The Seattle brass is clearly pessimistic about anything like a typical minor-league season. It’s not hard to see why, given the stumbling effort to get a MLB campaign underway. But Dipoto says there is some hope that many minor-leaguers will get some sort of competitive action. He says he’s “optimistic” that minor-league action of some kind will be possible later in the year.

More broadly, Dipoto says, the club is bullish on the organization’s outlook. The Mariners’ slate of future financial commitments isn’t onerous; most of it is promised to younger players. As a whole, the current MLB roster is quite youthful, and there’s hope that some new stars are just on the horizon. It’ll certainly be fun to watch if the M’s decide to throw some of that talent into the bigs in an offbeat 2020 campaign.

76ers, Devils Owners Eyeing Mets

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Josh Harris and David Blitzer are “in the early stages” of compiling a bid for the Mets, Scott Soshnick of Variety reports. They join a still-amorphous A-Rod/J.Lo bidding group among known pursuers of the club.

There’s little question that Harris and Blitzer have ample experience in purchasing and running major sports franchises. The former is principal owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils. The latter also has ownership stakes in those franchises. Both are shareholders in the Premier League side Crystal Palace F.C. There’s baseball experience, too: Blitzer co-owns the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate (the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders), an interest he’d likely have to divest to swing this deal.

The pair of potential Mets owners surely aren’t looking only for a fun place to park their capital. Both acquired their bankroll through their work at famed private equity shops (Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, respectively). And they’ve made out like bandits through their other sports-related investments.

New bidders generally represent good news for the current ownership group, led by Fred and Jeff Wilpon. Then again, it seems notable that this particular slate of candidates is only just emerging. Harris and Blitzer may well smell an opportunity.

It remains hard to imagine that the Wilpons will be able to wrangle the $2B asking price they’ve reportedly placed on the franchise — unless, perhaps, they waver on their desire to hang on to the SNY network. No doubt profit-minded investors will want the television revenue opportunity to be included in the package.

Denard Span Discusses His Decision To Walk Away

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Denard Span has played 11 seasons at the big league level, totaling 1359 games and 5956 plate appearances, but the former Twins, Nationals, Giants, Rays and Mariners outfielder confirmed to MLBTR this week that he’s suited up for the final time.

Denard Span | Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

“I would say, in my heart, once I didn’t sign a contract going into the 2020 season, that was it for me,” said Span. Retirement, however, is a bittersweet step for the 36-year-old, who’d have preferred to walk away from the game on his own terms. Instead, changes to the free-agent landscape and the manner in which teams evaluate players left Span feeling conflicted as he sought a new team in the 2018-19 offseason.

“I’m a man of principles, and when those principles aren’t met, I can’t go along with it,” Span explained. “…I honestly recognize that I’m not the player that I was when I was in D.C. or when I was in Minnesota. But, I still know that I have value. I’m not a center fielder or premier player anymore, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help a ballclub win a championship or win games. I’m not the $12MM player anymore, but from what I did [in 2018], that doesn’t tell me I’m worth $1MM or worth $1.5MM or worth league minimum. I got an offer for league minimum. It was just unreal.”

Span indeed put together a solid campaign in 2018, tallying 501 plate appearances between the Rays and Mariners with a combined .261/.341/.419 batting line. He connected on 11 home runs, 22 doubles and seven triples while swiping nine bases in 13 tries. Both OPS+ and wRC+ agreed that his bat was 12 percent better than that of a league-average hitter. Through 137 games, Baseball-Reference pegged him at 2.1 wins above replacement — FanGraphs at 1.5.

“For me, how do you go from 500 at-bats, being a productive player — you look over the course of my career, I’ve never been a problem in the clubhouse, either — how do you equate that to $1.5MM or all the way down to league minimum?” Span asked rhetorically.

The timing of the offers was difficult on Span and his young family as well, ranging from late January through the first week of the regular season. Any offers received were of the “take it or leave it” variety, Span added, as opposed to a few years ago when there was more negotiation. Once Spring Training was underway, he finally received offers from multiple clubs at once — on minor league deals.

“It just was like, ’How did I get to this point where now I have to prove that I can play when I just had 500 at-bats last year?'” Span continued.

Span’s comments strike a similar tone to those recently expressed by former Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett. The 30-year-old Gennett, who didn’t sign a contract this winter, spoke to Doug Fernandes of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune last month about “not conforming” to what he “[doesn’t] think is right.” Gennett set a value on his skills and on the trade-off of being “220 days away from family,” ultimately opting not to compromise. Span viewed the decision similarly.

“I just couldn’t see myself at this point in my career giving in or compromising myself — especially where I’m at in my life, being a husband and a father,” said Span, who is married and has two children under three years old. “It’s already hard enough to be away from my family, and now they want me to play for less than what I humbly feel I deserve. I’m not saying I’m worth $10MM. I’m saying I’m worth more than what they offered me.”

Span and Gennett are hardly the only big leaguers frustrated by the changes to the free-agent landscape in recent years. We’re not far removed from a 2017-18 offseason that proved to be one of the most frigid in recent memory for free agents. The lack of activity on the middle and lower tiers of the free-agent market that winter helped to set the stage for much of the league/union tension that has negatively impacted the currently ongoing return-to-play talks and will certainly impact the next wave of collective bargaining in 2021.

While it’s true that the game’s top stars — particularly those still shy of 30 — have generally been able to secure considerable free-agent contracts, the 2017-18 and 2018-19 offseasons also featured an erosion of the “middle class” of free agents. (There’s a reason Adam Jones is preparing to play in Japan, after all.) Span himself noted that not long ago, veterans at the same point in their careers as he was following the 2018 season could even reasonably expect to find two-year deals. Rajai Davis, David DeJesus and Chris Young are among the numerous outfielders who signed two-year deals in the $10MM range from 2013-16.

In today’s game, comparable veterans like Kevin Pillar, Brock Holt and Asdrubal Cabrera have begun to settle for one-year pacts, and those who do find multi-year guarantees typically take a smaller salary. Wilmer Flores (two years, $6.25MM this offseason), Austin Jackson (two years, $6MM in 2018) and Howie Kendrick (two years, $7MM in 2018) are a few examples. With teams now suddenly experiencing unprecedented revenue losses, and with a likely aggressive wave of non-tenders on the horizon, it seems unlikely that the trend will change anytime soon. It’s eminently possible that other veterans will feel obligated to follow the same path as Span.

All told, Span will officially walk away from baseball with a lifetime .281/.347/.398 batting line, 71 home runs, 265 doubles, 72 triples, 185 stolen bases, 773 runs scored, 490 runs batted in and 28 wins above replacement. The 2002 first-round pick walked in 8.6 percent of his plate appearances, struck out at just a 12 percent clip and was a positive contributor on the bases and with the glove for the vast majority of his time in the big leagues. Between his draft bonus, his first extension with the Twins and his three-year deal with the Giants, Span earned more than $58MM as a player. His 2018 production suggests that he could likely have added to those totals, but Span will instead turn his full focus to his family, taking solace in the fact that he stuck to his convictions:

“At the end of the day, I want people to get that I didn’t play because of principles. Point blank.”

Athletics Have Ample Future Payroll Flexibility

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2020 salary terms still need to be hammered out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Next up is the Athletics:

*Includes buyouts of club options over Stephen Piscotty and Jake Diekman

(click to expand/view detail list)

Latest On Health & Safety Negotiations Between MLB, MLBPA

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Major League Baseball’s latest proposal for the 2020 campaign hasn’t been met with open arms by the players. As the two sides continue to butt heads over the financial aspects of the 2020 season, there are also considerable health and safety guidelines that need to be negotiated.

This morning’s proposal, according to Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), would require players to sign an “acknowledgement of risk” waiver, which gives many in the union pause. Players are wary that upon signing such a waiver, they’d be unable to take any action should they feel the league provided an unsafe work environment.

Another potential hurdle to clear is that the league does not appear inclined to compensate players who opt out over concerns regarding the health of family members in either salary or service time. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that immunocompromised players — e.g. Carlos Carrasco, who missed much of 2019 while battling leukemia — could opt not to play but still receive both service time and salary. (Per Jeff Passan of ESPN.com, via Twitter, the league would define high-risk individuals as those who “may be more likely to suffer severe illness as a result of COVID-19 than others. … Individuals who, by virtue of their age or medical history, are at a materially higher risk … of complications.”

Players who aren’t willing to play due to similar concerns regarding a spouse, child, parent, etc., however, are viewed differently. Heyman indicates that the union is at least seeking service time for those players that opt not to play for reasons other than their own added susceptibility to coronavirus complications.

Perhaps most concerning, though, is the lack of communication between the league, the 30 clubs themselves and the local governing bodies that are overseeing broader efforts to deal with the public health threat posed by the coronavirus. Bradford William Davis of the New York Daily News reports that few of the relevant local authorities have been meaningfully engaged on plans.

It’s a bit surprising that some of these boxes have evidently not been checked at this point, several months into the COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps the league and its member teams feel they won’t have trouble smoothing over any issues on the public health front once they’ve got an agreement with the players. And while there could still be stumbling blocks in the collective bargaining negotiations over health and wellness, there’s also reason to think the sides can come together. Indeed, Andy Martino of SNY.tv tweets that the general issue still isn’t expected to pose any significant roadblock.

Latest MLB Proposal Includes Further Expansion Of Playoff Field

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4:24pm: A variety of other notable details of the new proposal have now emerged. Initial reactions from the players’ side to the latest draft agreement seem less than favorable. The league has communicated its view that the sides “need to reach an agreement by Wednesday” in order to prepare for a 76-game campaign.

Players would be guaranteed half of their prorated salaries, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. If the postseason goes off without a hitch, the players would collectively stand to earn 75% of the prorated portion of their original salary guarantees.

The league has also suggested some major tweaks to the 2020-21 offseason, as Jeff Passan of ESPN.com covers on Twitter. The qualifying offer would go on hiatus. Instead, a team would get draft compensation for losing a player who signed a multi-year deal for over $35MM or a one-year deal for over $17.8MM. Signing such a player wouldn’t require any sacrifice of draft picks.

1:17pm: The new proposal sent this morning by Major League Baseball to the Players Association in many ways boils down to a repackaging of previous, similar offers, but it does come with at least one particularly notable change, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). The league asked for 2020 postseason fields to expand even beyond the previously discussed 14 teams, adding another team per league and bringing the total to 16 playoff clubs.

The idea behind the league’s latest expansion would see a traditional bracket format play out, with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 8 seed, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc. until each league has played down to one winner to square off in the World Series. The first round of play, Sherman adds, would be just a three-game set.

That’s a particularly strong deviation from the norm, where the top teams in each league have long been assured at least a five-game series against the weakest playoff entrant. The prospect of a sub-.500 No. 8 seed upsetting a dominant N0. 1 seed would create some excitement, to be sure, but the watered down playoff field and short early-round formats would undoubtedly be a turnoff for a very vocal set of MLB fans as well.

The league’s motivation here is clear. Postseason television contracts represent ownership’s best stream of revenue without fans in attendance at MLB games, and further broadening the playoff field would ensure that more games are played and that fans from more markets tune in to see the early rounds of play. The latest proposal from MLB to the MLBPA calls for owners to share some of those television rights with the players — typically, player postseason shares are derived from gate alone — so it’s only logical that owners are keyed in on making those games as lucrative as possible.

Today’s proposal will surely be rejected by the union, but it’s interesting that the league has now requested even more playoff expansion. On the surface, that’s something the MLBPA could incorporate into a counter-proposal, although it remains eminently possible that we simply see commissioner Rob Manfred implement a heavily truncated season with fully prorated pay. As few as 48 to 54 games have been speculated upon in the past week.

Shortened 2020 Season Could Impact 2021 Draft

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As the league and MLBPA continue to squabble over the length of the 2020 season, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reports that whatever length is determined could well impact the state of the 2021 draft (Twitter link). Per McDaniel, the standing March agreement between MLB and the MLBPA indicates the following language:

In the event that each Club plays less than 81 regular season games in 2020, the Office of the Commissioner shall have the right, after conferring in good faith with the MLBPA, to modify the Draft order.

Certainly, the notion of “good faith” negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association seems far-fetched at this point, but the possibility of changes to the determination of the ’21 draft order are nevertheless important to note. Many have suggested that a particularly brief season — MLB has been exploring 48- and 54-game scenarios — won’t offer an accurate barometer for determining the best teams. With a short enough season, even a poor couple of weeks could be enough to make a club set its sights on the 2021 season, which could impact the 2020 season in a variety of ways.

Baseball’s current proposal is for a 76-game season with cuts beyond the players’ prorated salaries. It became clear almost immediately upon word of that deal leaking that it would be yet another nonstarter for the Players Association, however, as the new proposal guarantees only half of the players’ prorated salaries for 46.9 percent of a standard 162-game season (plus another 25 percent of their prorated pay if the postseason is completed).

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported back in March that the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA also allows the league to shorten the 2021 draft from 40 rounds to 20 rounds.

MLB Makes New Economic Proposal To MLBPA

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10:55am: Players have been asked to respond to the proposal by Wednesday, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

10:25am: Major League Baseball’s 30 owners have made a new proposal to the union, ESPN’s Karl Ravech reports (via Twitter). The latest attempt by the league to return to play would see a 76-game season that pays players at 75 percent of their prorated contracts and concludes on Sept. 27. The postseason would still finish before the end of October, and the players would receive some portion of “playoff pool money.” Draft pick compensation for signing players would also be temporarily eliminated.

On the one hand, it’s encouraging to see a new effort from ownership. On the other hand, Mike Axisa of CBS Sports points out (via Twitter) that the offer essentially boils down to the same one the league has previously made twice — just dressed up differently. The league’s 82-game, sliding-scale proposal would’ve paid players, on average, about a third of their full-season salary. That’s also true of a roughly 50-game schedule with fully prorated salaries, and the new offer is also in that same ballpark.

To that end, it’s not surprising to see SNY’s Andy Martino tweet that the general player reaction to this is further anger. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich elaborates, tweeting that the union thinks this offer is actually a step back, as players would be more dependent on postseason bonuses to receive their full pay — despite the fact that the league itself has persistently expressed concern about the potential cancellation of playoff games due to an autumn surge in COVID-19 cases.

Per Drellich, the proposal would pay players only half of their prorated salaries for the proposed 76-game regular season, though that number would rise to 75 percent should a full postseason be able to be played out. Meanwhile, Ravech tweets that some sources contend that this offer translates to about $200MM more in total player salaries being paid out in 2020. That seems contingent on the postseason being played in full, though, so the union likely does not see things that way.

It’s also worth noting that while the league can point to the temporary suspension of the qualifying offer/draft compensation system as a win for players, that’s a potentially hollow gesture. Given the widespread revenue losses, even fewer players than usual would be expected to receive a QO at all. Mookie Betts, George Springer and J.T. Realmuto might receive a QO under any circumstance, but borderline cases would almost surely not be given a QO due to ownership fear over accepting and being saddled with a hefty 2021 salary. The Athletics were in essence publicly shamed into paying their minor league players after cutting their weekly stipends to save a total of $1.2MM; it shouldn’t even be assumed that a player like Marcus Semien would be guaranteed a QO.

It seems quite likely that the MLBPA will reject this offer, though if the outcome is a return to some actual back-and-forth negotiation, that could make the new proposal significant even if it was never likely to be accepted in the first place.

In the absence of a true negotiation, the league appears poised to stand by commissioner Manfred’s ability to set a season length at which ownership is comfortable paying fully prorated salaries. If the league views that as the likely outcome, then it may not feel a great sense of urgency anyhow, as a season in the vicinity of 50 games could be played out between August and September (or sooner, depending on start date) with a postseason being completed well prior to the Oct. 31 cutoff point on which owners have been adamant.

Quick Hits: Harris, Nationals, A’s Ballpark, Cardinals

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Nationals assistant general manager and VP of player personnel Doug Harris is back home and recovering after a recurrence of leukemia, the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga writes.  This is the fourth separate time Harris has fought the disease, with this latest incident resulting in a blood transplant, further rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and a 26-day stint in hospital.  This all came as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the medical system and put patients like Harris at an even more elevated risk.  “It was the lowest point in my life, without a doubt,” Harris said, as he had to endure this battle while his family was prohibited from visiting due to COVID-19 restrictions.  “I’m a very faithful person, but it’s tough to understand,” Harris said.  “And there’s people out there far worse off than me.  I never lose sight of that.  But, my goodness, four times?  Come on, man.  It tests your mettle.”

Thankfully, the transplant was a success (all three of Harris’ daughters volunteered blood, with doctors opting for the donation from his middle daughter Sydney) and Harris is now resting at home.  While his daily activities are understandably limited, Harris has been able to join other Nationals staffers in conference calls about how to approach and prepare for a potential 2020 season.  “This has been part of my life. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to overcome,” Harris said. “And there’s a great story that is not finished yet. Not even close.”  We at MLBTR are all looking forward to the next chapters of Harris’ story, and we join the rest of the baseball world in wishing him the best in his recovery.

More items….

  • Athletics president Dave Kaval provided the latest on the team’s efforts towards a new Oakland ballpark, telling Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that the A’s are still “moving forward with” the plan at the Howard Terminal site.  “Right now, we’re just focused on taking it quarter by quarter and seeing how much progress we can make.  We are not at the top of the list [for the city of Oakland] because there are more pressing issues, and we want to be respectful of that as we garner the necessary approvals to move forward,” Kaval said.  It isn’t yet known if the pandemic could result in the project being pushed back from the original target date of the 2023 season, as “the timing of those things aren’t known right now because everything is still in flux,” Kaval said.
  • As for the Athletics’ current ballpark, Kaval told Slusser that the team is in discussions with local officials about how to safely open and operate the Oakland Coliseum under advanced health guidelines.  The A’s already submitted a 67-page document outlining what health and safety procedures will be in place, and approval from Alameda County could come as early as Monday.  When or if this approval is granted, A’s players will be able to begin workouts at the ballpark.
  • The Cardinals have five selections within the first 93 picks of Wednesday’s amateur draft, and seven picks overall during the five-round event.  As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes the situation, “it’s a cluster of picks that allows for some gamesmanship. The Cardinals could use it as a reason to shuffle around bonus money and reach for a pick, to gamble on signability — or play it safe, target predictable picks, and try to get sure things from an unsure draft.”  Whether the club pursues any sort of overarching strategy at all might not be realistic, as assistant GM Randy Flores notes that “in reality, each pick is made in the context of that moment.”  The shortened nature of the draft will also be a big factor in the team’s decision-making, as Goold points out that the Cardinals have traditionally been very successful at finding future gems later in the draft.  On the current St. Louis roster alone, Matt Carpenter (13th round, 2009) and Tommy Edman (sixth round, 2016) were two homegrown products drafted after the fifth round.

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