By Tim Dierkes | at
It's time for an MLB Trade Rumors Windows 8 app! Given that the operating system has only been out for a short period of time, experience in Windows 8 app development is hard to come by. Nonetheless, we plan to forge ahead and find a strong candidate to create this application. Regular MLBTR readership is a bonus. If you're interested, please email mlbtrwindows8@gmail.com with your qualifications.
You can purchase our iPhone/iPad app here and our Android app here.
By Tim Dierkes | at
Players on 40-man rosters with at least two years and 139 days of Major League service and less than six full years are considered arbitration eligible, assuming they are not already signed to a contract covering 2013. Arbitration eligible players almost always receive raises, and sometimes a player's expected salary exceeds his expected value. Such players are non-tendered, meaning they are not offered contracts by their teams and become free agents. The deadline for these decisions comes earlier than usual this year, on November 30th.
A handful of Major League contract-worthy players typically hit the free agent market by way of a non-tender every year. David Ortiz and Jayson Werth were non-tendered in their careers, and in more recent years players such as Edwin Encarnacion, Bobby Jenks, Russell Martin, Joel Peralta, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Keppinger, Joe Saunders, Jonny Gomes, Matt Capps, John Buck, and Chris Capuano were cut loose in this way.
This year, of the 191 players currently eligible for arbitration, approximately 50 are non-tender candidates. Click here to check out my subjective non-tender candidate list from a month ago (many of the listed players have since been cut loose). Decent names who may become free agents next week include Mark Reynolds, Geovany Soto, Ian Stewart, Daric Barton, Ryan Sweeney, Jair Jurrjens, John Lannan, Mike Pelfrey, and Brian Wilson.
As usual, we'll be all over the November 30th non-tender deadline. Our non-tender tracker, which allows filtering by tender status and team, is the best tool for following along. The newly-minted free agents will be added to our 2013 MLB free agent tracker and list as well.
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
The offseason started weeks ago, but let’s take an updated look at the offseason calendar as the news and rumors slow down for Thanksgiving. There’s a lot to keep track of in the first full offseason under the sport’s new collective bargaining agreement, so MLBTR has compiled a timeline of offseason events. Here’s what has already happened:
Here’s what’s ahead:
Dates via MLB.com, the Kansas City Star and USA Today.
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Mike Axisa's Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
Eleven free agents have signed multiyear contracts to this point in the offseason, as MLBTR's Free Agent Tracker shows. Of the 11 players with multiyear contracts, five have agreed to terms with new teams (Gerald Laird, David Ross, Torii Hunter, Maicer Izturis and Melky Cabrera).
If recent offseasons are any indication, these 11 deals will represent approximately one quarter of the multiyear contracts signed this winter. Last offseason saw teams hand out 40 multiyear deals and the year before that included 44 contracts of two-plus years.
Still, the biggest and longest contracts have yet to be signed. So far Jake Peavy's two-year, $29MM contract with the White Sox leads the way in terms of total dollars. Izturis, Jeremy Affeldt and Brandon League are the only players to obtain three guaranteed years.
MLBTR’s tracker allows you to filter free agents by many criteria: team, position, signing status, years, and dollars. Plus, we recently made it possible to filter free agents according to whether they obtained, accepted and declined qualifying offers. You can also link to your search results, which makes them easy to share.
For the most part, our cutoff for a player's inclusion on the tracker is 50 MLB plate appearances or 20 innings pitched in 2012. We also have a basic list that shows which free agents remain available at each position.
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
If you prefer your MLBTR fix limited to only your favorite team, we've got you covered. Below are links to our team Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds.
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By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
To keep track of all details related to free agent signings throughout the offseason, be sure to bookmark MLBTR's 2013 MLB Free Agent Tracker. The tracker allows you to filter free agents by many criteria: team, position, signing status, years, and dollars. Plus, we recently made it possible to filter free agents according to whether they obtained, accepted and declined qualifying offers.
You can also link to your search results, which makes them easy to share. For example, if you're looking to know which unsigned outfielders declined qualifying offers, you're just a few clicks away from discovering the answer.
For the most part, our cutoff for a player's inclusion on the tracker is 50 MLB plate appearances or 20 innings pitched in 2012. We also have a basic list that shows which free agents remain available at each position.
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
The MLB Players Association believes some comments made by MLB team executives and other baseball employees violate the sport's collective bargaining agreement, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. Anti-collusion language designed to prevent clubs from limiting a free agent’s value forbids clubs and their employees from publicly discussing the details of contract offers or disclosing whether an offer will be made.
The MLBPA objects to a number of recent comments, Rosenthal reports. For example, a Rangers official told USA Today the Rangers won't go beyond three years for Josh Hamilton; MLB executive Tony La Russa said on ESPN that contracts longer than six years are "scary" for teams; Yankees president Randy Levine told CBSSports.com that Rafael Soriano seeks a four-year, $60MM contract. The players' union doesn't plan to file a grievance, but MLBPA executives continue monitoring the situation, according to Rosenthal.
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:
By Ben Nicholson-Smith | at
Some free agents are franchise changers — players who alter the look of the team immediately and, more often than not, expensively. While identifying these players is easy, pursuing and signing them is not. General managers interested in top players must be prepared for an involved process that expands beyond the reach of the baseball operations department.
Take it from Dave Dombrowski, the president and GM of the Tigers. Dombrowski said he needed considerable involvement from owner Mike Ilitch to sign Prince Fielder for $214MM last offseason
“I think realistically when you start talking about those type of guys and the dollars that are invested, owners have to be involved,” Dombrowski told MLBTR. “I don’t know of a general manager or a president that has the authority to make a $200MM deal on their own … You don’t pick up the phone as a general manager and sign someone at eight years and $25MM per year and say ‘surprise.’ You don’t do those types of things.”
Last offseason Fielder and Albert Pujols obtained long-term deals worth in excess of $200MM. Ilitch and Angels owner Arte Moreno ended up with the star players, but other clubs were interested in both instances. The Cardinals, for one, had interest in re-signing their longtime first baseman. For St. Louis GM John Mozeliak, full engagement from the front office is a prerequisite for teams intent on signing elite players.
“One of those things that you’re trying to capture is that it’s a very global decision,” Mozeliak said. “So when you think about baseball decisions, you have the ownership side of it. You also have the business side of how they would market it, so you have a lot more people at the table when you’re starting to engage in this.”
This year, Josh Hamilton and Zack Greinke are the elite free agents with strong cases for contracts worth $100MM-plus. Whichever team signs those players will be sending a significant message about the direction of the franchise.
“Not only are you looking at how it’s going to affect your team and how it’s going to play next year and in future year,” Mozeliak said. “But also what’s it going to do to your fan base? What kind of messaging are you sending to it? And I just think all of those things thrown together make it far more complicated than just your traditional negotiation.”
Major signings mean a great deal to fans in Dombrowski’s view. Once the Tigers signed Fielder fan interest picked up significantly and the public perception of the club changed.
“Because they look at him as a difference maker compared to somebody else who just may be another guy in people’s minds,” Dombrowski said.
There’s also the question of a team’s overall composition. Two offseasons ago, the Nationals signed Jayson Werth before they were regarded as one of the league’s top teams. Four years ago, the Yankees were already regarded as a playoff caliber team when they spent in excess of $340MM to obtain C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. It’s part of the balancing act for any team wondering whether to spend big.
“Is he the one guy you have, are you building around him?,” Dombrowski asked. “Or is he with some other people? With us I think the difference is we already had a couple of real quality guys and premium type guys and [Fielder] was being added to that group. I think the difference is when you reach that point and it’s not just the one guy, on the field your players look at it as you’re taking a step forward to win.”
These players can create shifts in perception single-handedly, not only for fans and onlookers, but for the team itself. Of course, much has to go right for a team to complete a deal of this magnitude. Signing top free agents takes coordination and timing, not just historic amounts of cash.
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