The Brewers announced they've avoided arbitration with reliever Francisco Rodriguez, signing the Scott Boras client to a one-year deal. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports the value at $8MM, well below my expectation after he earned $11.5MM in 2011. K-Rod had accepted the team's arbitration offer rather than continue as a free agent.
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I can’t believe the Brewers offered him arbitration. Anytime a mid-market team is going to be paying that much for a reliever, it’s going to hurt.
They’re paying $8.4M combined for one of the best end-game 1-2s in baseball. Deal with it.
I have no problem dealing with it. But, they just added that the deal is for $8MM, I think everyone expected it to be quite a bit higher than that. I’m sure they would still like to have the $$ to spend on other areas, but it’s not near as bad as I expected.
Wouldnt be surprised to see him traded by the deadline, especially if they could get back a piece or two for any potential areas of need
So you’re saying your comment was based on the amount of money when you didn’t even know the amount of money? Heh.
I think pretty much anyone that follows the arbitration system assumed his salary would be in excess of $10MM and as high as $12MM.
Sorry you don’t understand. heh
All they really did was use Prince Fielder’s $15.5M salary from last year to buy Ramirez and Rodriguez.
I would much rather have Fielder than those two. Doesn’t matter though. I’m sure they could have used that $8MM on a bigger need. To me, there just aren’t that many bullpen arms worth that.
I’ll bet if your Cards didn’t spend so much on that loser Halliday you could have still had AP.
Were all baseball fans,I was so happy when you signed the loser because that sealed AP deal with the Cards
Yeah that Halliday is horrible……….
Though the cost will be very high for the Brewers, K-Rod will be a great trade chip if he’s having a great year and the Brewers are out of contention.
Good deal for the Brewers. I thought he’d get a raise through arbitration. Had he gone for $10 mil at an arb hearing, I’d bet he wins it.
I’m suprised he was willing to take only $8 mil. I wonder what else is in the contract that made him sign it (or if he just took less to stay with the team and allow them to compete).
I bet its a calculated move, having a lower salary at the deadline will make him more appealing to other teams. Maybe he gets traded to a contender in hopes of negotiating an extension? Maybe far fetched….but at least plausible?
I think they still have to eat salary in order to get a decent return, but this does make him more tradeable.
That being said – Brewers are likely to compete for the division, unless they completely collapse while Braun is out. Why would they want to trade him?
Admittedly I’m not very familiar with the Brew Crews bullpen or farm system, but the reason I think a trade might be possible is they already have good pitching and a solid closer. Krod, while good, might be a luxury depending on what other guys could step up in that set up mans role. Maybe they could trade him to get another bat, or pitcher, etc at the deadline that they might need more so than an 8th inning guy? All just speculation on my point here.
Problem being, the only teams that would be interested in Krod would be teams that are competing. Why would a team that’s competing trade away a bat or pitcher that’s already contributing?
Thats why you play the game, who knows what the Brewers situation will be on July 31st, what if a starting pitcher goes down? Or one of their bats goes down and they need to replace that production during the stretch run, trading krod might net them a potential piece. Especially since the rest of their pen will be good, might not need him as much as another area.
The point of my post is just about potential dealings with krod this year and 1 reason why he might have accepted a lower salary. Not trying to project how the brewers will be doing in the standings on july 31st when its january 17th
I’m not trying to project either. But a contending team is not going to trade a piece that is helping them in the middle of the season for Krod. A team that is not contending is not going to be interested in Krod if they are trading something to the Brewers.
Hey may get traded, but it will be for a prospect.
Ryan Madson is also a Boras Client, after seeing the market for closers implode the way it did this was probably the best idea. Also having 2 clients competing for limited jobs probably doesn’t look so great for you as an agent
Yet another feather in the cap of the Boras clientele for the off season.
Ya gotta love it. Fielder, Jackson the next to get hammered and then his winter will be truly Eboneezer screwed.
Wow…this is a huge surprise and makes him accepting arb. a little easier to swallow. Good work Dougie.
My guess is this deal revokes the Brewers right to offer arbitration in 2012.
Arbitration works differently under the new CBA. Signing team would not have to lose a draft pick any longer, so the no arbitration clause is no longer relevant.
Instead, I’d bet on a limited no-trade clause.
Pretty good deal for the Brew Crew. If Ramirez can get off to a hot start while Braun is out, I don’t see why they can’t win the Central.
Makes no sense for K-Rod to accept this, unless he was worried that he would be cut during spring training.
That’s a really good point. Maybe the Brewers gave him a guarenteed contract in exhange for the lower salary.
Maybe he and Boras got scared when Madson didn’t get any offers. I doubt anyone would pay him much more than what Madson got.
I can’t imagine the Brewers cutting him in Spring Training, given that they are likely to compete for the division. If they don’t cut him, what other teams might offer is irrelevant.
I’m shocked he was willing to accept this deal. Any reasonable arbitration offer, he wins.
No way he would be cut in ST unless there were criminal allegations. Cutting a player because you offered arb when you shouldn’t have is a guaranteed fight with the Union. One the club would lose.
Exactly. I don’t know why people don’t understand this.
Man! Go Red Birds!
Yeah the Cards are the best team.
Yeah Braun is the worst outfielder in the game. Matt Holliday is the best.
John, don’t make us all look bad. Thanks
Hey why don’t you worry about your cardinals and we worry about the Brew.
Dude are you high or something?
Didn’t they have to buy him out or something? Maybe they took that into consideration.
Hes just trade bait thats y they got him back and KRod knew that thats y he accepted it
8 Million is an absolute steal, given that most were projecting his arbitration salary in the 10-12 mil range….don’t know how you do it, dougie.
Not trading K-Rod also seems to be the idea here, it would allow our bullpen to not fall off as much with the loss of Takashi Saito and Latroy Hawkins to FA this year.
What did K-Rod gain by agreeing to waive his 17.5mm vesting option? Or did it just not vest at all? I remember him agreeing to waive it, but maybe it’s moot at this point? Either way, it seems he missed out on 10mm just for 2012 alone.
With the 17.5 million vesting option in place, if there were an injury to Axelrod, the Brewers would have kept K-Rod in the setup role.
Brewers gave him a little more money on the buyout IIRC, so that he would waive the vesting clause. With the vesting clause gone, Brewers could use him to close games if Axelrod was hurt, without fear of vesting the option.
Hey genius, his name is Axford, not Axelrod.
This is a very strange signing. K-Rod left several million on the table – without a doubt. I have to assume that there were concessions on the part of the Brewers in order for him to take such a low base salary.
When a player’s multi-year contract expires and he accepts arbitration (and would otherwise be a free agent) does the arbitration board (or w/e it’s called) consider his previous contract as a baseline? Or do they evaluate the club’s and the player’s proposals w/o considering the old contract?
If the latter is the case, this number makes a lot more sense for both sides.
K-Rod also got $4 million to buyout his option, so it is like getting $12 million. He also has incentives for games finished, should he become the closer.
So basically, he signed for just less than what fellow Boras client Madson got, but if you add in his buyout, he is similar to Papelbon on the high end of the reliever scale.