Let the bidding begin! Free agents are now allowed to sign with new teams.
Activity may still be limited this month, however. 55 Type A or B free agents are eligible to be offered arbitration at the November 23rd deadline, based on the Elias rankings. In many cases, teams will wait to see whether an arbitration offer is made before signing a free agent. Say the Pirates want to sign Type A free agent Ramon Hernandez. If they sign him before November 23rd, an arbitration offer becomes assumed, and the Pirates have to give the Reds their second-round pick in the June 2012 draft. They'll want to see whether the Reds actually offer arbitration, because if not there will be no draft pick compensation.
This concept matters less for Type B free agents, because the new team doesn't directly give a draft pick to the old one. Teams still may not want to guarantee their competitors draft picks, though. If the Red Sox want to sign Type B free agent Freddy Garcia, doing so before November 23rd guarantees the Yankees a supplemental draft pick.
Certain star players will be obviously be offered arbitration, for example Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Jose Reyes. With these players the November 23rd deadline is not important, but stars usually don't sign in November anyway because they prefer to let the market develop into December or January.
Last year free agents were free to sign with new teams as of November 7th, and the arbitration offer deadline was November 23rd. Victor Martinez was the only Type A free agent to sign with a new team during that period, while Joaquin Benoit and John Buck were the only Bs. All three were locks for arbitration offers, so there was no harm in signing them early. There were several re-signings during that period, including Aubrey Huff, Jake Westbrook, Ramon Hernandez, and Jhonny Peralta.
ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong! The kid’s jingle-belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer.
It’s the hap-happiest off-season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy winter meetings
When agents come to call
It’s the hap- happiest off-season of all!
What about summer? You know, when the actual baseball season is in full swing.
Must be a Sox fan
Must be a yankee fan
By summer, half of the teams are already out of the races. In November, everyone has hope. Except for Oriole fans. It’s tough to have hope when you don’t have a GM.
It’s music to Boston’s ear!
Any on the phils?
Only issue is we dont know if the new CBA has different FA (type A/B) comp.. rumor is it will be a comp round pick for both
I doubt any changes take effect for this particular offseason. The current CBA doesn’t expire until December 11.
Agreed, I’ve heard that free agent compensation is likely to remain the same for this offseason and the 2012 draft. Would not be fair otherwise, dating back to July trades.
Beltran, Rollins, Pierre and call it an off season!
Pierre LF
Sanchez 2B
Beltran RF
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Schierholtz CF
Huff 1B
Rollins SS
Got news for ya slick: Jimmy ain’t battin’ 8th……Jimmy don’t bat 8th……GOOD LUCK with that one !
Homie don’t play dat
Y’all really want Pierre?
He’s a solid leadoff hitter. Prob the best available not named Jose Reyes.
True, I was thinking about Alex Rios for a second…my bad.
No we missed out on that one….all we would have had to give up is a major first round bust named Tim Lincesomething!
Who the hell is that? Could it be this weirdo in my avatar? I hear he plays baseball…
I hear he smokes alot of gonja too
Nah, that kid just looks like a stoner
Dejesus can be. Pierre’s lack of obp makes him a bad leadoff hitter. Over the past few years I would bet Dejesus is better in obp.
I like Dejesus too. He had a down year, so probably could be had cheaper. Funny thing is, if he didn’t break his wrist in 2010 we would have had him instead of Cody Ross O.O
You’re right about DDJ. He can play all outfield positions (he led the AL in UZR in RF, and was pretty good in LF in ’09), hits righties better than left, if you want to platoon him. I would much rather have him leading off than Pierre…and unlike Juan, his arm actually can throw a baseball more than 100 ft without a 45 degree arc. I think much of his bad year can be explained by him still recovering from his wrist injury and Oakland’s stadium. WAY better choice than Pierre.
Yeah. Hit it toward the outfield, one or all will miss it.
it might be hard for the giants to overpay/sign pierre w/ colleti not in the SF front office anymore. if you want, you can have velez back!
Can’t wait! Let’s get some deals poppin! Can’t wait to see who the Tigers are “in hard on” this year!
You must be looking for the Chien-Ming Wang thread.
I actually teared-up while laughing about that comment for some reason haha
You stole all my possible jokes for that thread
I just went Wang crazy I guess.
judging from your picture, i’d say there’s going to be a lot of excited free agents just waiting to get down to business with you guys.
why do teams need almost a month to decide about arbitration? Move the date up lets get on with it!
I agree, when I’m playing MLB: The Show, it’s the first thing I do with my free agents (I’m jokingly saying that people). I’ve got to think they know who they’re going to offer it to at this point.
I’d actually really like to see the Pirates sign Hernandez.
Ramon Hernandez is prolly going to be one of the best pickups for a team this year. As a Brewers fan I wish the Crew would take an interest in him. We already have J. Lucroy but Ramon would be a nice compliment to him. I really like Ramon’s offensive potential. The Pirates would be getting a very good player. I don’t know how many games you would get from him behind the plate. I really liked what the Brewers did this year by making G. Kottarus Randy Wolf’s personal catcher. That gave Lucroy the rest that he needed. I wonder if a situation like that would be good for Hernandez? Hernandez would be a great fit with the Pirates. I also wonder what the Pirates are going to do with their first base position? I know someone else had mentioned Pena. I wouldn’t mind if the Brewers pursued Pena too. My offseason wishes for the Brewers are A. Ramirez, C. Pena(only if Fielder is gone), Furcal, and Sizemore. I would move C. Hart to 1st base if G. Sizemore was aquired. Of course those aree just my position player wishes. I am not even going to start rambling on about my pitching wishes.
My lineup
RF- C. Hart
CF- G. Sizemore/N. Morgan/C. Gomez
LF- R. Braun
3B- A. Ramirez
2B- R. Weeks
1B- C. Pena
C- Lucroy
SS- Furcal
Pitcher
if their payroll somehow doubled this could work
I know the A’s won’t resign WIllingham, but maybe they can land some decent cheap guys.
For years, the Dolphins have gotten the money for parking, concession stands, and luxury booths; now there is money to spend and no more firesales… This is the first offseason since just prior to ’97 that I actually care about Free Agency signings… GO FISH!!!
i have a feeling the marlins are going to pull a ‘werth’ this offseason
Can we trade you for Josh Johnson? 🙂
You can have Chris Vol-Suck, hell, I’ll even throw in Ricky “Mr. Inconsistent” Nolasco… I just want a big name bat to protect Stanton in the line-up, imagine if pitchers actually had to pitch to that kid and not junk him all the time
Alright, but only if you throw in that one guy that had that one name that turned out to not be his real name.
i.imgur.com/D9QFJ.gif
yyyyyeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh BUDDY!!! Let’s get this party started!!!
Website needs a new countdown, Tim! Make it to when the Cubs win the WS 😉
That clock would explode
whoop
WTH?? 54 min in and NOBODY signed yet??
Reyes is re-signing with the Mets…just throwing that out there
Ryan Braun said he’s going to the Brewers, so he’s going to the Brewers. Ryan Brawn said so.
I JUST HEARD KING FELIX GOT TRADED TO THE YANKEES FOR JESUS MONTERO!
LOL straight-up right? Are you Gordon Thompson’s assistant GM?
cool story bro
Ladies and gentlemen, Bleacher Creature’s other Disqus account.
This is my first time following the whole free agent signing, so I just want to ask one question. Do signings usually occur pretty quickly (like right now) or are they kind of spread throughout the day?
They’re kind of spread out through late January, and occasionally later.
-C
signings will occur within the next week but expect big named guys like prince or pujols to hold out maybe a week or two. In 2009 I waited like 4 months for Manny to sign back with the dodgers so you really never know !
Like mentioned in the post, I wouldn’t expect any signings of real significance until later, probably around the Winter Meetings. There will be some signings, but that’s when the magic happens.
Hope that helps.
Does anyone know about a “posting schedule” (if it exists)?
For example, is there a deadline that Darvish has to submit his name to be posted? And then how long do teams have to bid, then sign, etc.
Edwin Jackson come to KC and I won’t ask for anything else for Christmas!!
This was always my favorite part of playing MVP Baseball. Even more fun than going 162-0 and sweeping the playoffs.
I love that game so much. That’s the only game I still played on my XBox, but they just got the red rings, so I’m going to have to get a new one. Totally worth it for that game.
Back in 2007 or 2008, I paid like $80 for the PC version from a third party seller on Amazon. Totally worth it for the mods. Too bad the mod community for it has kind of died down.
You are right. I totally agree with you, Ian_Smell.
won’t be long before yankees and red sox fans start posting with their annual wishlist for the holidays
I guess your wish list is for the Yankees and Red Sox not to sign any big free agents (something the Yankees haven’t done in 3 years, so you only got half your wish then last year). But I expect you to get your full wish if Pujols, Fielder, Wilson, and Reyes all sign elsewhere and I think there’s a good chance that is what’s going to happen.
I think his comment isnt about the yankees/red sox signing players, but their fans coming up with outrageous ideas and talking abotu the teams nonstop when it comes to players they should get. I remember a fair amount of yankees fans saying the yankees will get both crawford and lee last year.
Also Soriano was a top free agent for RP last year, as was Rivera/Jeter. So thats 3 they signed last year.
Rivera/Jeter, really? Come on, yes they were FA but they were homegrown so as people say, they weren’t “buying players from other teams”. Soriano, fair I suppose, but he wasn’t the biggest name available, plus you pretty much knew his old team wasn’t going to get him back so he would have gone somewhere else anyway.
By the way, I don’t know of a single Yankee fan who said they should get Crawford last year. Cliff Lee….different story. But every true Yankee fan would know signing Crawford is nothing but a waste. They have an OF of who all combined makes less than Crawford (And I think it still might, Swisher is at $10 mil, Granderson I think is at $11, and Gardner is minimum wage).
Maybe it was one of those “annoying” fans who think they should sign every FA in the world, but don’t count the real ones into thinking they needed Crawford.
Since there was no agreement at the start of free agency, is there no luxury tax this year? I heard Jayson Stark say that on 97.5 the fanatic.
Woohooo!
One thing I’m curious about…
If a Type A free agent is signed now an offer of arbitration is assumed and a draft pick is given up. But what about for Beltran? He can’t be offered arbitration due to his contract. Can you sign him now without giving up a draft pick? Which rule is overruled?
It is not a rule that type A/B free agents are automatically offered arbitration if they are signed before the deadline. What Tim Dierkes meant in the article is that type A’s that are signed now are considered to be offered arbitration anyway. The signing team might as well go in quick to make sure they get the guy, like the Tigers did with Martinez last year. The Red Sox still had to offer arbitration to Martinez to get the pick. If they hadn’t then they wouldn’t have gotten the extra pick, even though Martinez signed before the arbitration deadline.
In Beltran’s case, anyone can sign him at anytime without giving up a pick because he and the Giants agreed that there will not be an arbitration offer.
But it is a rule. In the current CBA it says:
“(c) A Type A or B Player shall be subject to compensation only
if (i) he signs a contract with another Club prior to December 1; or
(ii) he is offered salary arbitration by his former Club on or before
December 1 pursuant to Section B(3) of this Article XX and signs a
contract with another Club.”
Of course the date is November 23rd this year, but the rule should still stand. But I think since he is unable to be offered arbitration, under the other sections of the CBA it doesn’t matter if he’s signed now or not. He could sign today and not cost a pick.
Interesting…Didn’t know about that rule. I actually think that the Giants will receive compensation if he signs before December 1st based on point 1.
The agreement not to offer arbitration only applies to point 2 meaning that the Giants are unable to extend the period they are eligible for draft pick compensation after December 1st.
Because of this I don’t think Beltran will sign with an other team than the Giants before December 1st.
The thing that makes me hesitate on that is the previous rule, which states:
“The former Club of a free agent, no later than by the December 1
following the free agency election period, may offer to proceed with
the Player to salary arbitration under Article VI of this Agreement,
for the next following season. The Club’s offer shall be communicated
to the LRD, which shall notify the Association in writing. Said
offer shall be effective upon receipt by the Association and the Club
will not be permitted to retract the offer. If the former Club of the
free agent does not so offer, it shall lose all rights to compensation
under Section B(4) of this Article XX with respect to that free agent.”
Since the former club cannot contractually offer arbitration anyway, there might not be an assumption of it if he signs before the Deadline.
I think this is a bit ambiguously worded because of the word ‘or’ between XX(4c(i) and XX(4c(ii). I refer to my first statement that the Giants would have to offer arbitration to receive any compensation as the correct interpretation, although I think the Giants might have a case if Beltran signs elsewhere before December 1st. I think team will sign him after the arbitration deadline to avoid confusion.
I think this is a bit ambiguously worded because of the word ‘or’ between XX(4c(i) and XX(4c(ii). I refer to my first statement that the Giants would have to offer arbitration to receive any compensation as the correct interpretation, although I think the Giants might have a case if Beltran signs elsewhere before December 1st. I think team will sign him after the arbitration deadline to avoid confusion.