Detwiler gets another frustrating year with the Nats save a trade. Photo Haraz Ghanbari/AP via federalbaseball.com
So, the tender deadline came and went. I didn’t post any pre-tender deadline analysis because I didn’t think there was any analysis to do. In November I thought *maybe* the team would think about parting ways with Kevin Frandsen or maybe Ross Detwiler … but then went and re-signed Frandsen. I left Detwiler out of my initial salary analysis but …. thinking about it, if you’re nearing $150M of total payroll, why do you want to cut loose one of your bullpen guys over a measly $3-$4M?
So I assumed we wouldn’t non-tender anyone. And we didn’t. I say “we” like i’m part of the team or something.
Anyway. MLBtraderumors summarized the list of non-tenders yesterday and the list really surprises me.
First; why would a team *trade for* a guy and then non-tender him?? Toronto did this with no less than three recently acquired players, headlined by former uber-prospect Justin Smoak. Per Dave Cameron‘s chat yesterday, Toronto not only acquired Smoak recently but then had to pay a $200k buyout to non-tender him. Just kind of an inexplicable set of transactions; they basically just lit $200k on fire for the privilege of having Smoak on their active roster for 5 weeks. Did Smoak arrive in Toronto and immediately insult the GM’s mother or something?
Boston acquired Juan Francisco off waivers last month and non-tendered him this month; weird. Some other interesting positional players are Gordon Beckham and Everth Cabrera; maybe the Nats have some more 2B options on the market now.
But some of the newly-minted FA arms are very intriguing to me:
- Kris Medlen; all I can say here is, wow. We’re talking about a guy who had a 256 ERA+ in 2012. Yes I know he’s just had his 2nd TJ surgery, and yes I know he came back down to earth in 2013. But man, he’s only 29, and he’s shown he can be a Greg Maddox-esque hurler in this league. He made $5.8M last year so his guaranteed compensation would still be roughly $5M (you can’t cut a guy’s pay more than 20% in arbitration) … don’t you keep him even if he’s not a sure thing to start the season on your roster?
- Brandon Beachy; kind of the same logic as Medlen, but with more caution. Also finishing his 2nd TJ rehab but he’d be significantly cheaper (just $1.45M for 2014 in arbitrated salary). Again; if you’re Atlanta, are you cutting bait just to save $1.5M??
- Alexi Ogando: i’ve always liked this guy, had him in fantasy for years. He’s injury prone, yes, but how much of that is because Texas kept changing its mind on how to use him? Is he a middle reliever (2010)? Is he a starter (2011)? Is he a closer (2012)? Is he an 8th inning guy (2013)? Or is he washed up (2014)? I’d sign him to a middle-reliever contract; he only made $2.6M last year.
- Wade LeBlanc and Scott Snodgress; seem like low-risk gambles that someone might make on 4-A starters who could be decent. I’ll bet a low-payroll pitchers park team like San Diego could turn these guys into 100 ERA+ pitchers.
Work the phones Mike Rizzo; maybe you can get these guys on minor/major contracts while they rehab.