Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:06 am
The Ellicott City Torrent have reached contract extensions with the following players:
I am revising my contract extensions based on Article IX Section 6 which allows you to renew any arb eligible player at their current salary or the Major League Minimum Salary, whichever is higher. I am also providing a commentary to explain why I am making these decisions based on the rules. Hopefully this will clarify the application of the contract rules.
6+ Years of Service Players
Betts, Mookie -- 6 years x $10,120,000
Rizzo, Anthony -- 4 years x $8,520,000
Springer, George -- 3 years x $8,190,000
Abreu, Jose -- 3 years x $4,800,000
Stanton, Giancarlo -- 4 years x $3,000,000
Paxton, James -- 3 years x 3,300,000
Chapman, Aroldis -- 3 years x 4,080,000
May, Trevor -- 3 years x $3,050,000
Commentary: The 6+ years of service guys are pretty straight forward. It’s a simple calculation of what kind of card they are likely to produce over the period of the contract relative to the salary you are paying. For example, Betts is priced as a top 10% player at his position, so by resigning him I am gambling that he will remain an elite SOM player for the next six years. Rizzo and Springer are both priced close to top 25% players at their positions (really more like top 20%), so I am betting that they will continue to produce, on average, $8 cards over the periods of their contracts. Stanton is a little different. He has a $2.17 mil salary in 2019 but I am offering him a 4 year extension at the required minimum FA bid of $3 mil a year for 4 years. I am essentially locking him up for four years at the average price of a left fielder with the expectation that he will be much better than average in at least one of those four years. Looking at the pitchers, I am getting May for three years at close to the average price for a reliever, Chapman for the average price of a top 50% reliever, and Paxton for the average price of a starter. I think each of these players will end up producing cards that are better than I am paying for them over the next three years.
5 years of Service Players
Neris, Hector – 1 year x $4,100,000
Correa, Carlos – 1 year x $4,760,000
Commentary: Thanks for the discussions in the contract thread, I was reminded to the rule in Article IX Section 6 which allows you to re-sign an arb eligible player for their current salary or the major league minimum salary if it is higher. This means that you do not need to take an arb 3 player to arbitration or offer him a multi-year contract extension if you don’t want to. Instead you can simply renew. For Hector Neris, this is a no brainer. The league minimum salary is $4 mil and his current salary is $4.1 mil, so why take him to arbitration when the most I have to gain is $100,000 in savings if he produces a shitty card next year? Instead I protect myself from the upside risk by re-signing him. Now Correa is a tougher nut to crack. Here is a guy that is only 25 years old and has produced a WAR of 24.4 in his brief career. I could offer a contract extension of 5 years or more, but it would cost me $7.38 mil a year based on the 25% rule. I have decided instead to extend him for 1 year at $4.76 mil and lose him to free agency at the end of the 2020 card season. All my chips are on Ahmed Rosario.
3-4 Years of Service Players
Giolito, Lucas – 4 years x $5,110,000
Berrios, Jose -- 4 years x $5,110,000
Maeda, Kenta – 4 years x $5,110,000
Sanchez, Gary -- 4 years x $4,010,000
Gallo, Joey -- 4 years x $5,380,000
Lamet, Dinelson – 1 year x $2,840,000
Alvarado, Jose – 1 year x $2,000,000
Rosario, Amed – 1 year x $2,270,000
Commentary: Maeda, Berrios, Sanchez and Gallo all have 4 years of service and are entering their arb 2 season. I could renew their contracts for 2020 at their current salaries, but then I would have to offer them contract extensions in their arb 3 years, which would cost me more money. So I have decided to offer 4 year contract extensions to all of them at the average salary of the top 50% of players in their primary positions. For Maeda and Berrios this is $5.11 mil a year, while for Gallo and Sanchez it is $5.38 mil and $4.01 mil a year respectively. I believe that these four will prove to be better than average, and probably much better than average, players over the next four years. Unfortunately it means I lose control of them in 2024. Giolito is a different story, and his contract extension is the result of the decision we made to let all year 3 & 4 players to be signed to contract extensions at the top 50% avg salary regardless of their SOM salary. That decision allows me to sign Giolito to a contract extension at $5.11 mil rather than the $6.77 mil he is being paid in 2019. Finally, Lamet, Rosario, and Alvarado can be renewed at their current salaries, or in the case of Alvarado at the much higher league minimum salary, so why not?
1-2 Years of Service Players are renewed
Fletcher, David -- $5,020,000
Rodgers, Brendan -- $600,000
Diaz, Isan -- $600,000
Riley, Austin -- $920,000
Kiner-Falefa, Isiah -- $750,000
Brinson, Lewis -- $700,000
Davis, J.D. -- $3,480,000
Buehler, Walker -- $6,260,000
Duplantier, Jon -- $860,000
Cease, Dylan -- $600,000
Webb, Logan -- $600,000
Sheffield, Justus -- $600,000
Baez, Michel -- $2,000,000
Commentary: The 1-2 year players are easy—renew at their current salaries of the major league minimum (whichever is higher) or cut. I decided to renew this batch because they are young and cheap. In the case of Buehler I renewed not because he’s cheap but because he’s awesome! Fletcher is a brain fart. I’m hoping he becomes an indispensable jack of all trades. I would have taken him to arbitration if I could.
Free Agents
Donaldson, Josh
Solano, Donovan
Vogt, Stephen
Gardner, Brett
Sanchez, Aaron
Ross, Joe
Bass, Anthony
Hudson, Daniel
Smith, Kevan
Commentary: These guys were cut to make room for free agency. So everyone is re-signed or cut. There will be no arbitration cases for the torrent in 2020.
2020 Salary Cap Space used = $111,740,000
