{"id":6100,"date":"2009-11-15T15:23:51","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T15:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6100"},"modified":"2010-04-02T15:33:19","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:33:19","slug":"rounding-the-bases-options-hot-stove-news-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6100","title":{"rendered":"Rounding the Bases: Options, Hot Stove news and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4772 alignright\" title=\"MLBLogo\" src=\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/MLBLogo.jpg\" alt=\"MLBLogo\" width=\"167\" height=\"134\" \/>BaseballGB is guided by <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?page_id=2\">three main aims<\/a> and experience has proved that so long as we keep them in mind, seemingly simple ideas can be the foundation of features that are enjoyable and interesting to read and very rewarding to write.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u00c2\u00a0 leads me to the first instalment of the latest such new feature in which I will round up the main news from the previous seven days or so over the offseason.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a straightforward premise, but one that I think will be well worth building on.\u00c2\u00a0 British newcomers to the sport will be able to keep up-to-date with the important news topics (not least the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone where\u00e2\u20ac\u009d part of the offseason that can become confusing if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay on top of it), while established fans can treat it as a useful reference to check and a starting point for discussion.\u00c2\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>An \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcOptions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 overview<\/h3>\n<p>The Hot Stove is officially bubbling as players are filing for free agency, teams are making decisions on contract options and trades are being discussed.\u00c2\u00a0 My <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?page_id=363\">Baseball Basics for Brits<\/a> volume on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPlayers: Development, Contracts and Transactions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will hopefully help to explain the rudiments of how player contracts work in MLB, including why so many players (relative to Premiership football, for example)become free agents.\u00c2\u00a0 However, one thing that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cover in that volume is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccontract options\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and right now they are a key topic.<\/p>\n<p>Essentially they refer to a part of a player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contract in which one party (sometimes both) has the option to extend the contract in line with the specified terms (i.e. how much money the player will be paid).\u00c2\u00a0 It will be referred to as a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcclub option\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcplayer option\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and the relevant party either \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcexercises\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the option or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdeclines\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The decision will normally be based on immediately understandable logic.\u00c2\u00a0 For instance, a team will exercise their option on a player if they want to keep them and are happy with the financial commitment this will entail, or decline the option if either of these two conditions are not met.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important point because in some cases the news story will state that a team has declined an option, but the team may still want to keep the player.\u00c2\u00a0 For instance, the Rockies have just declined their 2010 option on reliever Rafael Betancourt even though ideally they would like to keep him.\u00c2\u00a0 Colorado would have\u00c2\u00a0been contracted\u00c2\u00a0to pay Betancourt a 2010 salary of $5.4m if they had exercised the option and they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay that much.\u00c2\u00a0 Therefore they declined the option and hope to come to a new agreement.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously the risk for the Rockies is that another team may value Betancourt more highly than they do and will be prepared to offer him a better deal.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If a club declines an option, they will normally have to pay a buyout fee as part of the process.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the White Sox declined their $12m option on Jermaine Dye and had to pay him $950k as a result, just as the Orioles declined their $8m option on Melvin Mora and he got $1m as a result (nice work if you can get it).<\/p>\n<p>In terms of contract options being exercised this offseason, the main ones have been:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the Red Sox exercised their 2010 option on catcher Victor Martinez,<\/li>\n<li>The D-Backs exercised their 2010 option on pitcher Brandon Webb,<\/li>\n<li>the Twins exercised their 2011 option on outfielder Michael Cuddyer,<\/li>\n<li>the Rays exercised their 2010 option on outfielder Carl Crawford,<\/li>\n<li>the Phillies exercised their 2010 option on pitcher Cliff Lee,<\/li>\n<li>Manny Ramirez exercised his 2010 option to stay with the Dodgers,<\/li>\n<li>Jason Varitek exercised his 2010 option to stay with the Red Sox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these were fairly predictable, although Varitek might have decided to decline his option once the Red Sox had brought back Martinez.\u00c2\u00a0 At this stage in Varitek\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career, accepting a reduced role on a contender looks like the right decision.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cuddyer deal is different to the rest as he was already under contract for 2010 and the option related to 2011.\u00c2\u00a0 The Twins had to make a decision on this option within five days of the end of the 2009 World Series as per the contract they signed with him in January 2008.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: contract details are from <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/mlbcontracts.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Cot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baseball Contracts<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Other Hot Stove news<\/h3>\n<p>Of all the moves during the 08\/09 offseason, the Angels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 acquisition of Bobby Abreu on a one-year deal for a guaranteed $5m was one of the very best.\u00c2\u00a0 They received an excellent return on that initial investment and Abreu enjoyed his time with the club so much that he decided to avoid the free agent circus and signed a two-year extension with the Angels that includes an option for 2012.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good start to what could be a challenging offseason for the Angels, with John Lackey, Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero all hitting the free agent market.<\/p>\n<p>Other players who have decided to prolong their stays with their current clubs include Tim Hudson (who signed a three-year extension with the Braves), Freddy Sanchez (two-year extension with the Giants), Jack Wilson (two-year extension with the Mariners) and Ken Griffey Jr (one-year extension with the Mariners).\u00c2\u00a0 The latter move is of debatable worth to Seattle in terms of on-field production from the future Hall-of-Famer, so the success of the deal lies in what he offers to the organization more broadly (valued as a great presence in the clubhouse and in drawing extra fans to Safeco Field) alongside the cost in terms of the financial investment (which reportedly largely rests on incentives) and a roster spot.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The free agent market hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t moved much as yet (no surprises there), but there has been a few trades to keep us occupied.\u00c2\u00a0 The Pirates acquired Akinori Iwamura from the Rays in a rare deal that sees Pittsburgh obtaining a Major League regular rather than trading one away.\u00c2\u00a0 The Red Sox decided to take a punt on Jeremy Hermida, picking him up from the Marlins for two left-handed pitchers (Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez).\u00c2\u00a0 Boston can easily afford his arbitration salary and if they can somehow tap into Hermida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much-touted potential then it could be a great bargain move.\u00c2\u00a0 In the AL Central, the Royals and White Sox agreed to an intra-division trade (Chicago received Mark Teahen for Chris Getz and Josh Fields) that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to help either a great deal, while the Twins have added shortstop J.J. Hardy from the Brewers in a trade that sees Carlos Gomez heading to Milwaukee.\u00c2\u00a0 The one surprise with the move was that Hardy wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t traded for the pitching talent that the Brewers clearly need; however acquiring Gomez allows them to let centre fielder Mike Cameron depart as a free agent and the money saved may make a subsequent deal (or deals) for a pitcher more possible.<\/p>\n<h3>Nationals new manager<\/h3>\n<p>The Washington Nationals appointed a new full-time manager this week and, as expected, this resulted in the interim manager Jim Riggleman getting the job on a permanent basis.\u00c2\u00a0 The Nationals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 win-loss record did improve once Riggleman took over from Manny Acta at the All-Star break and he will now have to prove that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just the temporary impact of having a new face in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 There will be more details on the Nationals in my review of the NL East tomorrow.<\/p>\n<h3>Gold Gloves<\/h3>\n<p>The first group of <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/mlb\/awards\/y2009\/\" target=\"_blank\">2009 awards<\/a> was announced with gold gloves being handed out to the AL and NL players deemed to be the best fielders at their respective positions.\u00c2\u00a0 They have caused much debate as fans argue over players who were unfairly overlooked (Franklin Gutierrez being a prime example) and those whose awards look more like a reflection on reputation and\/or their batting rather than how they fielded in 2009 (Torii Hunter, Derek Jeter and Orlando Hudson).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joe <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6058\" target=\"_blank\">commented<\/a> on how fielding differs fundamentally from pitching and hitting in his great recent article and this is reflected by the fact that fielding statistics still seem to be a work-in-progress.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly judging a player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth in fielding percentage and errors alone doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to resemble an accurate assessment.\u00c2\u00a0 Most people seem to agree that the answer lies in capturing data via a series of cameras and that sort of analysis for MLB games <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/07\/10\/sports\/baseball\/10cameras.html?_r=2&amp;ref=sports\" target=\"_blank\">might not be too far off<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>GM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meet in Chicago<\/h3>\n<p>The thirty General Managers <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/news\/article.jsp?ymd=20091111&amp;content_id=7655122&amp;vkey=news_mlb&amp;fext=.jsp&amp;c_id=mlb\" target=\"_blank\">met for two days in Chicago<\/a> this week; however it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a very newsworthy event with topics such as expanding the use of instant replay not being discussed formally.\u00c2\u00a0 They will meet again for the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis between 7 and 10 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new feature at BaseballGB, reviewing all of the baseball news from the previous seven days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-6100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7243,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions\/7243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}