If that report is true, Puig is definitely a confirmed piece of shit! Wow! 
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Tigers reach deal with free-agent righty Jordan Zimmermann
November 29, 2015 11:59 am ET
The first big free agent is off the board, as the Tigers have reached agreement with star right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, CBS Sports has learned.
The deal is pending a physical.
Fox Sports first reported the Tigers were in serious talks with Zimmermann late Saturday night.
Zimmermann becomes the first front-line pitcher to do a deal in a market stocked with excellent starters. He is expected to sign a five-year contract, worth $110 million. Fox Sports and ESPN first reported the terms of the deal.
Zimmermann was ranked No. 8 in my list of top 50 free agents, ranked by dollars and projections.
The Tigers have been trying to upgrade their staff and may look for a second starter. They previously enhanced their bullpen by trading for closer Francisco Rodriguez.
Tigers owner Mike Ilitch never has been afraid to spend, and this winter is going to be no different. Ilitch has been to the World Series twice but is looking for his first title. Uncharacteristically, the Tigers finished last in 2015.
The Nationals tried to extend Zimmermann a while back, but there's no belief the sides tried lately. The Nationals will receive a draft choice since they made Zimmermann a qualifying offer.
The free-agent starting pitching market is led by Zack Greinke, David Price and Johnny Cueto, with several other excellent starters also available, including Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen, Ian Kennedy, Mike Leake, Hisashi Iwakuma, Yovani Gallardo and many others.
Zimmermann, 29, was 13-10 with a 3.66 ERA last season and has a career 3.32 ERA. He had Tommy John surgery several years ago, which may have limited his market a bit.Comment -
Jon HeymanBaseball Insider
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Tigers reach deal with free-agent righty Jordan Zimmermann
November 29, 2015 11:59 am ET
The first big free agent is off the board, as the Tigers have reached agreement with star right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, CBS Sports has learned.
The deal is pending a physical.
Fox Sports first reported the Tigers were in serious talks with Zimmermann late Saturday night.
Zimmermann becomes the first front-line pitcher to do a deal in a market stocked with excellent starters. He is expected to sign a five-year contract, worth $110 million. Fox Sports and ESPN first reported the terms of the deal.
Zimmermann was ranked No. 8 in my list of top 50 free agents, ranked by dollars and projections.
The Tigers have been trying to upgrade their staff and may look for a second starter. They previously enhanced their bullpen by trading for closer Francisco Rodriguez.
Tigers owner Mike Ilitch never has been afraid to spend, and this winter is going to be no different. Ilitch has been to the World Series twice but is looking for his first title. Uncharacteristically, the Tigers finished last in 2015.
The Nationals tried to extend Zimmermann a while back, but there's no belief the sides tried lately. The Nationals will receive a draft choice since they made Zimmermann a qualifying offer.
The free-agent starting pitching market is led by Zack Greinke, David Price and Johnny Cueto, with several other excellent starters also available, including Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen, Ian Kennedy, Mike Leake, Hisashi Iwakuma, Yovani Gallardo and many others.
Zimmermann, 29, was 13-10 with a 3.66 ERA last season and has a career 3.32 ERA. He had Tommy John surgery several years ago, which may have limited his market a bit.
Detroit is obviously enhancing their pitching staff.
Wonder if they'll also go after some sticks to kick start their hitting...Comment -
detroit knows how to spend big moneyComment -
Johnny Cueto turned down a six-year $120M offer from the D-Backs: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14256679/johnny-cueto-turned-arizona-diamondbacks-contract-offer-gm-dave-stewart-says
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Cueto going to be a bum after he gets payed.Comment -
Jon HeymanBaseball Insider
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Shelby Miller market is hot; Luis Severino, Marcell Ozuna are linked
November 30, 2015 2:31 pm ET
Young righthander Shelby Miller is creating quite a feeding frenzy on the trade market, and it's to the point it's got to be record interest for a pitcher who went 6-17.
Of course, by now we know pitchers' won-loss records aren't a very useful tool in deciphering a pitcher's value. And that is certainly the case here.
The Braves have put a very high price tag on Miller, and understandably so.
He is 25, has three years before free agency and was actually superb last season, despite that unsightly won-loss record. A strong case could be made, in fact, that no pitcher was undermined more by his teammates than Miller, as he posted a stellar 3.02 ERA to go with that record.
The Braves, according to sources, asked the Yankees for top young righthander Luis Severino in their talks. Severino was merely a request and there is no evidence the Yanks are considering that. The Braves are also said to expect young outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who's available, plus more from the Marlins.
The Diamondbacks and Giants are two more of the 20 or so teams that are said to have expressed interest in Miller. The Braves generally are seeking to upgrade their offense, though obviously in the case of Severino they are willing to look at young pitchers, as well.
One rival GM, while not denigrating the asking prices, said the Braves were "very aggressive" with their proposal.
While there's no word of anything being close, no one's exactly hanging up yet. Miller raised his value with a very nice year, and as a rival said, "The (Braves) made a very nice deal to get him." That is true, as they also obtained Tyrell Jenkins in a two-for-two deal with the Cardinals for outfielder Jason Heyward, who is now a free agent, and Jordan Walden.
Now, the Braves are able to ask a lot for Miller because the price of pitching isn't going down, even with several top starters free agents. The Braves can suggest that Miller is comparable or close to comparable to Jordan Zimmerman, who just got a $110-million, five-year deal rom the Tigers; by comparison, Miller should make less than $30 million via arbitration over the next three seasons. That represents a major savings.
The Braves are saying also that they don't have to trade Miller, as he does have those three years remaining on his deal. And that is true. But it's also true that the Braves aren't afraid to deal stars; they've dealt Justin Upton, Heyward, Craig Kimbrel and Andrelton Simmons in the last year or so.
Some believe the Braves might consider marketing Julio Teheran later, as well. Atlanta isn't afraid to shake things up. But star first baseman Freddie Freeman appears to be basically off-limits at this point.Comment -
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He served up a melon to him....Comment -
David Price to Boston for 7-years and $217M. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14...boston-red-soxComment -
Would have loved Price to come back to Toronto but history has shown that its rarely ever a good investment to give that many years to pitchers over 30 years old.Comment -
4:43pm: Price will earn $30MM in each season from 2016-18, $31MM in 2019 and $32MM per year from 2020-22, according to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter).
4:29pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Price will earn $30MM per year in the first three years of his contract, prior to the opt-out (Twitter link).
3:56pm: The Red Sox are in agreement with left-handed ace David Price on a seven-year, $217MM contract, reports Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. The Bo McKinnis client will sign the largest contract for a pitcher in history when the deal becomes official, narrowly eclipsing Clayton Kershaw‘s $215MM contract with the Dodgers. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that Price’s contract contains an opt-out deal after the third year of the contract, also noting that his $31MM average annual value ties Miguel Cabrera for the richest AAV in Major League history (links to Twitter).
Price, who turned 30 in August, is the consensus top free agent on this season’s market and gives the Red Sox the bona fide ace that many feel their rotation needs to function as a serviceable unit. He’s coming off a second-place finish in the American League Cy Young voting (Houston’s Dallas Keuchel took home first-place honors) after tossing 220 1/3 innings of 2.45 ERA ball with 9.2 K/9, 1.9 BB/9 and a 40.4 percent ground-ball rate between the Tigers and the Blue jays. That type of production has come to be expected of Price, who has averaged 217 innings and a 2.97 ERA per season dating back to the 2010 season.
The opt-out clause affords Price the chance to again test the open market heading into his age-33 season. It will be a challenge although not impossible, for Price to be able to secure more than the four years and $127MM that remain on his contract at the point at which he can opt out. For comparison, Price’s main competitor in free agency, Zack Greinke, opted out of the remaining three year on his $147MM contract to begin this offseason, but he did so entering his age-32 season (one year younger than Price will be after the 2018 campaign) and with $71MM remaining on his contract.
Price will immediately slot into the top spot in Boston’s rotation and be joined by some combination of Clay Buchholz, Eduardo Rodriguez, Wade Miley, Rick Porcello, Joe Kelly and Henry Owens to round out the remainder of the starting five. His addition gives Boston a surplus of useful starting pitchers from which it could deal to address other needs throughout the roster, possibly in the bullpen or possibly for further starting pitching upgrades.
The move represents the second major transaction pulled off by new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowksi this offseason. The former Tigers GM is more than familiar with Price, having acquired him from the Rays in a trade that cost him Austin Jackson, Drew Smyly and Willy Adames in July of 2014 and having traded him to the Blue Jays in exchange for young left-handers Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt this past July shortly before being dismissed in Detroit. In his first major order of business atop the Red Sox’ baseball operations hierarchy, Dombrowski spent extravagantly in a different manner, surrendering four prospects — Manuel Margot, Javier Guerra, Carlos Asuaje and Logan Allen — to acquire an elite closer from the Padres in the form of Craig Kimbrel.
Such transactions are the types we’ve come to expect from Dombrowski dating back to his Tigers days, but they represent a dramatic philosophical shift for the Red Sox, who previously shied away from long-term commitments of this nature and went to great lengths to build up their farm system under previous general manager Ben Cherington (who resigned after Dombrowski was hired). In order to make moves of this magnitude, Dombrowski likely had to sell ownership on a new direction for the club that aligned more closely with the strategies he employed while guiding the Tigers to a pair of American League pennants and three division titles from 2006-13. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the thus-far bold actions of Dombrowski, Red Sox GM Mike Hazen and the rest of the team’s decision-makers will lead to similar success in Boston.
The Price contract is a significant departure from the reported $144MM that the Tigers felt comfortable offering to Max Scherzer while under Dombrowski’s watch, although the Red Sox have a different long-term financial outlook — namely that they don’t have mega-contracts on the books for Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, as Detroit did. The contract also shows how far ownership’s thinking has come since attempting to retain Jon Lester with a reported four-year, $70MM offer that was ultimately boosted into the $120MM range but never approached the $155MM that Lester received from the Cubs.
With Price and Jordan Zimmermann now off the market, Greinke and Johnny Cueto are the top remaining arms on the market. As the top-tier names begin to come off the board, the second tier of free agent starters — highlighted by names such as Jeff Samardzija, Mike Leake, Wei-Yin Chen, Scott Kazmir and Yovani Gallardo — should come into play. Jason Heyward now stands as the top-ranked free agent from MLBTR’s Top 50 list, wherein we pegged Price to land exactly $217MM over a seven-year span.Comment -
The Dodgers this past season ran what wound up as the highest payroll in MLB history: $298.3 million, according to documents obtained by USA Today. The current collective bargaining (CBA) agreement between MLB and the Players Association mandates that payrolls above a certain threshold will be subject to a luxury tax. In the language of the CBA, it's known as the "competitive balance tax," and here's a little about said tax ...
As you may have already gleaned, the Dodgers in 2015 were clear of the threshold by more than $100 million, so, yes, they'll be getting dinged. You get dinged based on how far you exceed the threshold in a given year and whether you broke the threshold in prior years. As Bob Nightengale reports, the Dodgers' penalty for 2015 adds up to $43 million, which is a record. So, yes, that's a $43 million bill for the privilege of running up a $298.3 million bill.
As for 2016, we've just dipped our toes into the offseason, and the Dodgers already have more than $150 million committed in player salaries. Know who can afford such a thing? The Dodgers, for one.
The three other teams to cross the tax threshold in 2015 were the Yankees, Red Sox, and Giants.Comment -
Ridiculous amounts of money being paid to marginal pitchers who play 2/3 of a game every 5 days.Comment -
sooooo much moneyComment -
meanwhile the Pirates are being mentioned with such elite names as trevor Cahill and Justin MastersonComment -
Anyone else going to get price money? In 2 years, Harper will get 50 mil/year!Comment -
Unreal money out there.
According to Jayson Stark of ESPN, Zack Greinke is either looking for a six-year contract with an AAV (average annual value) higher than that of David Price, or a five-year contract with an even higher AAV.
Price just inked a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Red Sox with an AAV of $31 million. Earlier on Wednesday, the New York Daily News' Mark Feinsand reported that the Dodgers might offer Greinke a six-year, $210 million deal. That would put his AAV at a record $35 million. Alternatively, the 32-year-old right-hander could be open to accepting a five-year contract worth even more annually. The Dodgers and Giants are reportedly the two front-runners for Greinke's services.Comment -
Marlins do not tender contracts to RHPs Henderson Alvarez, Aaron Crow; both are now free agents.
@SFGiants do not tender contracts to catcher Hector Sanchez, RHP Yusmeiro Petit; both are now free agents.
@Royals do not tender contracts to RHP Greg Holland, INF Orlando Calixte; both are now free agents
Cardinals do not tender contracts to RHP Steve Cishek, catcher Cody Stanley; both are now free agents.
@Tigers do not tender contracts to RHPs Al Alburquerque, Neftali Feliz; both are now free agents.Comment -
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The Padres announced tonight that they’ve non-tendered third baseman Will Middlebrooks, making him a free agentComment -
What is greinke going to end up pulling in?Comment
