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- The Yankees are widely considered the favorites to sign Aroldis Chapman, though not if the closer’s market reaches five years and $100MM, George A. King III of the New York Post reports. One would think the dollar figure rather than the contract length would be the sticking point for the Yankees, as Chapman (who turns 29 in February) has long been expected to land at least a five-year deal this winter. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes predicts Chapman to land five years and $90MM, and would still set a new record high for a reliever contract even if it falls short of nine figures. (Dierkes also has Chapman signing with the Yankees.)
- Also from King, the Yankees similarly aren’t interested in a five-year deal with Edwin Encarnacion. New York has checked in with Encarnacion but also with Carlos Beltran, who would come at a much lower price in both years and dollars. Several other first base/DH types with lower price tags than Encarnacion have also been speculatively linked to the Yankees as well this offseason. It’s unclear whether any team would be willing to guarantee five years to Encarnacion, who is entering his age-34 season.
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Dodgers have to salary dump to get $ to pay off debtComment -
Marlins sign SP Edinson Volquez to a 2-year $22M deal. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...m-deal-marlinsComment -
TODAY: Dodgers president/CEO Stan Kasten rejected the notion that his club faces any league mandate, as ESPN.com’s Doug Padilla reports. “There is no mandate,” he said. “There is no problem with our debt and we continue to work on the same program we have been working on from the day we walked in here in 2012.” More broadly, Kasten emphasized, “business for the Dodgers is very strong and very healthy.”
As Padilla explains, commissioner Rob Manfred also backed down the idea that the organization would be forced to trim payroll to ease its debt burden. Under the league rule on debt servicing, he said, “non-compliant clubs are asked to submit a plan demonstrating a path to compliance.” He made clear, further, that “there are various ways to achieve compliance and there is no mandate to cut payroll.”
YESTERDAY: The Dodgers have two of the best free agents on the market in closer Kenley Jansen and third baseman Justin Turner, but the franchise’s mountainous debt could make it difficult to re-sign either. The club will trim payroll in 2017 as it seeks to reduce debt in order to comply with Major League Baseball rules, reports Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
After combining for a league-high $1.181 billion (including $112MM in luxury-tax payments) in end-of-season payrolls in their first four years under Guggenheim Baseball Management, the Dodgers are “hundreds of millions in debt,” a source said. “We’re not talking about, ‘Let’s reduce our payroll by $40 million and we’ll be compliant,'” the source commented. That’s despite signing a record television contract worth $8.35 billion over 25 years in 2013 and selling more tickets than every other team in each of the past four seasons.
Franchises must comply with MLB’s debt service rule within five years of new ownership taking over. The rule “limits debt to no more than 12 times annual revenue, minus expenses,” writes Shaikin. If a team is in violation, the commissioner has 16 options to discipline that club, including requiring approval of expenditures and issuing suspensions to ownership and/or management. Rob Manfred isn’t worried he’ll have to take such drastic measures with the Dodgers, though.
“I think the Dodgers will be in a position that they can comply with our expectations in terms of the debt service rule, without any dramatic alteration in the kind of product they have been putting on the field,” he said. Manfred added that “the Dodgers have always had a plan that would give them financial stability over the long haul.”
For their part, the Dodgers are confident they’ll be in compliance soon, according to chief financial officer Tucker Kain.
“We understand all of our obligations and work closely with baseball,” Kain said. “We’ll be in great shape with baseball.”
The Dodgers concluded 2016 with a payroll in the $258MM neighborhood and already have upward of $193MM in commitments for next year without either Jansen or Turner in the equation, Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource estimates. They’re on track to exceed the luxury-tax threshold again in 2017, then, even though it could increase from $189MM in the current CBA to around $200MM in the next agreement. The Dodgers would like to get under that barrier over the next couple years, which would enable them to bid more liberally on an elite free agent class in 2018-19 that could feature Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, LA’s Clayton Kershaw and Josh Donaldson, among others. Well-compensated Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu will all be off the club’s books by then, while young cornerstones like National League Rookie of the Year-winning shortstop Corey Seager, potential ace Julio Urias and outfielder Joc Pederson will remain under cheap control. That should help the Dodgers’ cause as they look to decrease spending, as should possessing a talented farm system with prospects who could soon make major league impacts.
For now, it’s unclear how much the Dodgers’ cost-cutting approach will affect their attempts to improve this offseason and go for a fifth straight NL West title next year. While retaining either Jansen or Turner (or signing free agent closer Aroldis Chapman) would be expensive long-term investments, the Dodgers have recently expressed interest in trading for reasonably priced standouts like J.D. Martinez, Ian Kinsler, Brian Dozier and Logan Forsythe – all of whom are under contract for two or fewer years – though acquiring any of them would presumably weaken their farm system.Comment -
Slow off season
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Mets resign Yoenis Cespedes to a 4-year $110M deal. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...0-million-dealComment -
Kelsey Jansen is going to be nice for someone.Comment -
The breakdown on Yoenis Cespedes' salary is $22.5 million in 2017, followed by $29 million in 2018, $29 million in 2019 and $29.5 million in 2020.Comment -
got a new CBA in the last day!Comment -
No more All-Star Game deciding home field for the World Series bull shit.Comment -
Cubs sign OF Jon Jay to a 1 year $8M deal. Dexter Fowler is not going back to the Cubs. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...s-chicago-cubsComment -
The Braves continue to collect veteran starters on one-year deals, acquiring Jaime Garcia (one year left on his contract) to go with Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey..
For the Cardinals, they dump Garcia's $12 million salary, clearing more payroll for a free agent outfielder.Comment -
Trade rumors of Andrew McCutchen going to the Nationals continue to heat up. But that doesn't necessarily solve the Nationals' biggest problem:
First base, where they ranked last in the majors in wOBA. Would they move Trea Turner to 2B and Daniel Murphy to 1B? Try Jayson Werth there? Or keep playing Ryan Zimmerman because he's owed $48 million?Comment -
The Braves have already grabbed headlines tonight by acquiring lefty Jaime Garcia from the Cardinals in a four-player trade, but here are a few other notes from around the division…
- While domestic violence charges against Mets closer Jeurys Familia may soon be dropped, that doesn’t mean he won’t face league discipline. That possibility must be considered by the organization as it charts its offseason, GM Sandy Alderson says, as ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin reports. Of course, it still seems unlikely that the club will be motivated to spend big on a new late-inning arm, particularly with Addison Reed capable of filling in for the ninth inning after an excellent 2016 season. It’s possible that a reliever, or perhaps some array of young talent, could end up moving to New York if (or, more likely, when) the team deals one of its left-handed-hitting corner outfielders, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports. The Mets’ strong preference is still to trade Jay Bruce rather than Curtis Granderson; it seems that the latter player may be expected to share time in center with Juan Lagares.
- Alderson also said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio today (Twitter link) that he’d be “surprised” if the Mets got involved with a top-level center fielder in free agency due not only to the draft pick they’d have to forfeit (referring to Dexter Fowler and Ian Desmond) and also due to the fact that the team has other needs on the roster. Following the re-signing of Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets are looking to move an outfielder, with reports indicating that Jay Bruce is the name they hope to shed. However, Curtis Granderson is reportedly drawing more interest, and FanRag’s Jon Heyman reports that the Orioles are among the teams with interest in Granderson (Twitter link). Baltimore doesn’t appear to have much interest in Bruce, however, he adds.
- The Braves put in a strong pursuit of righty Edinson Volquez before he went to the Marlins, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted yesterday. The team’s interest in Volquez came after it had already landed both R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon, but the Braves have been said to be focused on acquiring short-term assets in the rotation or front-of-the-rotation arms that would require enormous trade packages. As such, it’s possible that Atlanta only had interest in Volquez on a one-year deal, but he received two years and $22MM from the Marlins. Atlanta acted quickly to grab another short-term rotation commodity with tonight’s Garcia trade.
- The Marlins, too, still appear to be shopping for arms, as Heyman reports that they have potential interest in free-agent right-handers Jason Hammel and Doug Fister. The Fish are also looking for bullpen help, Heyman notes, which has been a priority in Miami for much of the offseason. Tim Healey of the Miami Sun-Sentinel writes that Miami is hoping to keep right-hander David Phelps in the bullpen following his dominance in that role in 2016. “Ideally, if we can keep a deep bullpen, we can keep him as that multi-inning effective bridge to the back-end guys,” said president of baseball ops Michael Hill to Healey. “He impacts more games for us that way. But we know he has the versatility if he has to move into the rotation to do that seamlessly and not miss a beat.”
- The Nationals are still looking for a closer, tweets Heyman, but it’s likely that they consider Aroldis Chapman to be too expensive. The Nats are interested in a reunion with Mark Melancon, however, he notes, adding that Washington “loved” Melancon’s clubhouse presence in his short stint with the team following a trade-deadline rental this past summer.
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Angels slugger Albert Pujols has undergone surgery to “release the plantar fascia on his right foot,” according to a team press release. Per the surgeon, a return to the field may be expected in about four months — which would mean Pujols may be ready to return to action near the start of the ensuing season.
The decision to go under the knife comes as a surprise given the indications given previously, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register notes on Twitter. It’s certainly additionally concerning given that Pujols required surgery to address plantar fasciitis in the same foot last fall.
Despite the procedure last year, Pujols did manage to play a full season, though he was also limited to DH duties in 123 of the games in which he played — nearly doubling his previous high. The Halos do have C.J. Cron available at first, where he spent much of 2016.
The procedure raises yet more questions about Pujols, a surefire Hall-of-Famer who just doesn’t produce like he used to. While there’s still plenty of pop in the bat — he has hit 71 home runs in the past two seasons — Pujols is no longer reaching base at even an average clip; since the start of 2015, he owns a .256/.315/.469 batting line that is steadily above league average, but hardly a major boon given his increasing defensive limitations and poorly rated baserunning.
All things considered, the $140MM owed to Pujols over the next five seasons seems as onerous as any commitment in the game. Even if he’s able to stay on the field and maintain (or slightly improve upon) his recent output, that’s an enormous sum of money for the kind of player he now is, particularly given the flood of one-dimensional sluggers available for much lesser obligations on the open market.Comment -
That Pujols contract might be the worst in baseball, $140M for the next 5 seasons. Yikes.Comment
