Tulowistzki leads off with a Homer today
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Aaron Hicks won’t be testing the open market next winter after all. The Yankees announced on Monday that they’ve signed Hicks, a client of CAA Baseball, to a seven-year contract extension that supersedes his previous one-year, $6MM contract for the 2019 campaign. The new pact will reportedly guarantee Hicks $70MM and come with a club option for an eighth season, meaning Hicks is now controlled by the Yankees through his age-35 season.
Hicks will reportedly receive a $2MM signing bonus in addition to a $6MM salary in 2019 before earning $10.5MM annually from 2020-23 and $9.5MM in 2024-25. The club option is said to be valued at $12.5MM (with a $1MM buyout), and while Hicks doesn’t have any no-trade protection on the deal, he’d receive a $1MM assignment bonus upon being traded.
Hicks, 29, has quietly emerged as one of the game’s more underrated players over the past couple of seasons. The former first-rounder, acquired in a lopsided deal that sent catcher John Ryan Murphy to the Twins, struggled in his first season with the Yankees but has since hit .255/.368/.470 with 42 home runs, 36 doubles, three triples and 21 stolen bases in 942 plate appearances. Hicks has generally graded out as a quality defensive center fielder in his career at the MLB level and provides plenty of value on the basepaths beyond his raw stolen base totals, as well.
Over the past two seasons, only five players in baseball (min. 900 plate appearances) have drawn walks at a higher clip than Hicks’ 15 percent mark, and his 18.9 percent strikeout rate in that time checks in below the league average. His 21.5 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone in that time is tied with teammate Brett Gardner for the ninth-lowest in baseball in that same span.
For the Yankees, the agreement with Hicks locks them into a long-term mix featuring sluggers Giancarlo Stanton (signed through 2027) and Aaron Judge (controlled through 2022) for the foreseeable future. That trio will be joined by Gardner in 2019 and, if healthy, by Jacoby Ellsbury, who is signed through 2020. Outfield prospect Clint Frazier, meanwhile, looms in the upper minors. Fellow prospect Estevan Florial is likely still two years from being a factor in the Majors.
Because Hicks was already signed for the 2019 season at a $6MM rate, today’s agreement is effectively a six-year, $64MM extension. For luxury tax purposes, though, it’ll be treated as a seven-year deal that comes with a $10MM annual luxury hit. The Yankees were already over the luxury tax line, albeit in the lowest penalty tier after resetting their tax right by dipping under the threshold last season. The Hicks contract adds another $4MM to their luxury ledger for the season, which will cost them an additional $800K in penalties.
Not many position players sign an extension by the time they reach five-plus years of service and are within a year free agency, making Hicks’ case somewhat of a rarity. But, as shown in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, Charlie Blackmon does stand out as one recent player to have done so, although as a more established hitter, he received a larger sum over a shorter term than Hicks secured with today’s agreement. Prior to that pair, the last position player in this service class to ink an extension of five or more years was Andre Ethier back in 2012.
By signing the deal, Hicks will forgo what has become an increasingly shaky free-agent market for players. Unlike the others who have recently signed extensions, however, Hicks could’ve tested the market as soon as next winter. It’s certainly possible that with another big season at the plate, he’d have been poised to top the money afforded to him by this contract — certainly on an average annual value basis. However, he’ll instead sacrifice a bit of that long-term earning power in exchange for the security of an immediate payday. It’s fair to wonder if other 2019-20 free agents will look at recent market trends and do the same over the next several weeks. Given the slow pace of free agency and the disappointing deals that many middle-tier free agents have taken over the past two seasons, Hicks could be the first of multiple would-be free agents to go this route.Comment -
"The last couple years, I didn't work hard because I still have a contract to go. Now I think I'll work hard more than any year in my life." Yasiel PuigComment -
Nolan Arenado and the Rockies nearing an 8 year, $260M contract extension. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...ension-rockiesComment -
Good luck tonight gentlemen. I need a lock someone feed me it.Comment -
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The Mets have had a few notable health issues arise early in camp, with Todd Frazier (link) and Jed Lowrie (link) each coming down with maladies. But they aren’t alone in that regard. Here are injury notes from the remaining four teams in the National League East:
- Phillies setup man Tommy Hunter has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 flexor strain in his right forearm and won’t throw for two weeks, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters Tuesday (Twitter link via the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen). Hunter, 32, missed the first month of the 2018 season due to a hamstring strain and now looks to be in some degree of jeopardy as pertains to Opening Day 2019, though if he’s cleared to resume activities in two weeks’ time, he could potentially be built back up in time for the regular season. Hunter, owed $9MM in the second season of a two-year contract, pitched to a 3.80 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 64 frames of relief when healthy last season.
- Similarly, the Nationals got more bad news on right-hander Koda Glover, who is being shut down for the time being due to a forearm strain in his right arm, as Mack Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes. The Nats, by all accounts, love Glover’s potential but have been unable to keep him on the field over the past two seasons, as he’s been shelved by back, hip and shoulder injuries. Once looked at as a potential closer of the future in D.C., Glover has managed just 35 2/3 innings at the MLB level across the past two seasons. Despite only having pitched a total of 55 1/3 innings in the Majors, Glover already has more than two full seasons of MLB service time given his lengthy DL stays. On the plus side, the 25-year-old’s MRI revealed no damage to his elbow ligament. Glover expressed confidence that the issue will ultimately prove minor, though only time will tell whether that will ultimately be the case.
- Braves righty Mike Soroka will pick up the ball again on Thursday, skipper Brian Snitker told reporters including David O’Brien of The Athletic (via Twitter). The hope surely is that a week or so of rest will allow his shoulder discomfort to subside. If not, it stands to reason that the Atlanta organization’s medical staff will order up an even lengthier timeout and further medical examination. Soroka is hoping for a healthy 2019 after his promising debut campaign was cut short by shoulder troubles.
- An MRI revealed that Marlins prospect Victor Victor Mesa suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain when beating out a possible double-play grounder in Sunday’s Grapefruit League contest, per a team announcement. While that’s the lowest grade of strain, Mesa will be sidelined for a bit and has been reassigned to minor league camp as a result. Manager Don Mattingly called the injury disappointing (link via MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro), given that the Miami organization had hoped to get Mesa as many at-bats as possible in big league camp as it gets a first extended look at his skill set. Mesa will likely head to Class-A Advanced or Double-A for his first taste of professional ball in the States, Mattingly added.
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I wish Puig the worst of luck.Comment -
Terrible attitude by PuigComment -
Teams should be afraid of giving Puig a contract longer than 1 year when he hits free agency.Comment -
Frick the giants are meeting with Harper, Hope they don't get sucked into to a long term contract..... Doesn't feel like he wants to play in Philly...maybe he is trying to get a couple of more years from the dodgers.....Comment -
I think the Giants are actually serious about Harper playing for them. I honestly think he winds up on the West coast because he doesn’t like the Phillies organization in particular their manager so it’ll either be LA or dare I say it SF that winds up with him.Comment -
Is Arenado worth 240. Rockies finally spending the big bucksComment -
If it seems we’re making only incremental progress in our understanding of the Bryce Harper saga, that may be due to the fact that the bidding is still progressing in a cautious manner. We learned yesterday that the Giants’ interest extended to the ten-year contract range, and there’s more chatter this morning, though it’s fair to wonder whether the recent movement is mostly just setting the stage for a final frenzy.
Harper’s camp seemingly expects to sign a record-breaking contract, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. It remains to be seen both where Harper will land and what record(s) he’ll break, but Nightengale writes that the three primary remaining contenders — the Dodgers, Giants, and Phillies — “have vowed to provide Harper with either the biggest overall free-agent contract in North American sports history or the largest average annual salary anyone has ever received in the sport.” The present record-holders in each of those two measures are Giancarlo Stanton ($325MM total contract) and Zack Greinke ($34.42MM AAV).
Agent Scott Boras is said to be “circling back with other teams” to see if they wish to get involved at the last moment. Presumably, that’ll include a phone call to the Nationals, Harper’s only professional club to date and a frequent match with Boras clients. It’s unknown at this point whether any other organizations will jump into the mix or whether the bidding is down to a final three. Regardless, Nightengale suggests, it seems the final stage of the process is finally upon us.
Here’s a quick breakdown of where the three aforementioned primary contenders stand, based upon reporting to date:
- The Phillies “still have the highest offer on the table,” per Nightengale. As Matt Breen of Philly.com reported yesterday, though the club is increasingly pessimistic of landing the star. The Phils are holding the line for the time being, per Andy Martino of SNY.tv (via Twitter), with Harper looking to move past the Stanton guarantee. Clearly, there’s some tension between this report and Nightengale’s assessment of the organizations’ willingness to set new high-water marks in the financial department.
- The Dodgers are evidently still not willing to go to a decade, as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reported yesterday on Twitter. They are, however, prepared to “obliterate” Greinke’s AAV record, Nightengale says. It seems the organization believes it’d need to dangle a term of “at least five years,” though that element of the interest is largely unknown. Neither is it known just how high the Dodgers would go in single-season AAV. It’s worth noting that the opt-out(s) included would be of even greater importance under this kind of scenario, though it’s unclear as yet how that could factor in.
- As for the Giants, Nightengale says the club is willing to go past $300MM on a ten-year term to land Harper. That’s unsurprising, as it emerged yesterday that the San Francisco organization was willing to go to that length, but is notable nevertheless. Nightengale cites “panic and desperation about season-ticket sales and fan interest” as driving what is “strictly an ownership pursuit.”
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Orioles are looking good out there baby!Comment -
Puig hit his first homer as a Red today.
Hopefully first of many more...
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Bryce Harper’s deal with the Phillies will be for 13 years and $330M, league sources tell ESPN. It will not include any opt-outs.Comment -
sure did...I agree 13 years is crazy stupid....... If he would have been with the dodgers, He probably would have ended up on the dl list!Comment -
13 years sounds like an absolute disaster, worse than Pujols deal.Comment
