It was on this day in 1985 that the Blue Jays and Dave Stieb finalized one of the more unique contracts in baseball history — an 11-year deal worth a guaranteed $16.6MM and (with incentives) possibly worth as much as $25MM. Larry Stone of the Seattle Times looked back at the contract in 2010, noting that while the Jays absorbed some criticism for the deal at the time, they got a bargain in the long run when Stieb developed into one of the best pitchers of his era. In 1991, the Jays reworked three years of the contract to pay Stieb an extra $4.35MM as a gesture of gratitude for his performance.
Here's some news from all around the AL East…
- Yankees closer Mariano Rivera denied a New York Post report from yesterday that claimed he would announce his possible retirement plans before the All-Star Break. Rivera told Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York that "nothing's changed" about his future plans and that he will "tell everybody what my plans are at the same time after the season."
- Brian Roberts isn't sure when, or even if, he'll be able to return to the Orioles following a series of concussions, he tells Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Roberts says he has stopped trying to guess when he may be able to resume his career, though he notes that his recovery is "progressing" and he "has more good days than bad days."
- Rays southpaw Matt Moore tops Baseball America's preseason list of the top 20 rookies in the game. Moore is the only AL East representative on the list, though former Yankee prospect Jesus Montero (now with the Mariners) clocks in at the #3 position.
- "We need some guys to step up on our pitching staff," Red Sox GM Ben Cherington tells MLB.com's Ian Browne. The Sox will be looking at pitching or outfield depth as they conduct their usual scouting of other teams' Spring Training camps. Also in this in-depth interview, Cherington discusses his first winter as a general manager, the difficulty in parting with long-time Red Sox stars Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield, and what he learned from Theo Epstein.
- The Blue Jays may be the only team that could be a fit for Derrek Lee, writes Fangraphs' Chris Cwik. Lee could be an alternative to Adam Lind at first if Lind struggles, or Lee could at least platoon if Lind again struggles to hit left-handed pitching. Though Cwik was pretty hesitant about Lee's chances of playing anywhere in the Majors in 2012, I'm not sure Toronto works as a landing spot either; the Jays have Edwin Encarnacion backing up at first, Travis Snider or Eric Thames as DH candidates, plus Ben Francisco and Rajai Davis as right-handed bench bats.
someone not take their meds today?
I don’t believe your lowercase quote.
I wonder if Cherington learned not to throw a couple hundred million dollars on overrated free agents. Boy Blunder never learned that one.
Why are we fiscally responsible? Not because we are cheap; we are not. Not because we are afraid of large commitments; we are not. Not because we would rather pursue non-tenders or particularly enjoy reading through thousands of minor league free agent reports instead; we don’t (well, maybe sometimes). Quite simply, we are fiscally responsible because the alternative would be a disaster. Fiscal irresponsibility is the single quickest way to hamstring a franchise for a decade.
We are fiscally responsible and we value payroll flexibility because we trust our ability to evaluate talent. Our attitude is: give us a talented core and some flexibility and let us go to work. The more talented the core and the more flexibility we have, the better off we will be. Injuries and down-turns in performance will be more manageable if we have flexibility.
sounds clueless
That sounds as if he’s taking an indirect cheap shot at those who are willing to shell out the $100mil+ contracts.
it sounds to me like he’s got a plan for the organization he just took over and is explaining to a notoriously short-sighted fan base why that plan does not include big-ticket free agents right out of the gate. the quote comes from 2003 when he was first hired and and when he pledged, as a plan for long-term organizational success, to turn the red sox into a scouting and player development machine
10 years later, no team in baseball fielded as much homegrown talent as boston and despite big name acquisitions like martinez and gonzalez the farm system remains strong. the outstanding young core they developed ultimately gave them the flexibility to bring in big free agents
those free agents have not performed, but the suggestion that theo ‘never learned’ not to throw big money at them is completely absurd. he learned it almost a decade before he even gave out the contracts. and the only reason he took those risks to begin with is because he had done so well in achieving his primarily goal of organizational player development. his actions were entirely consistent with the philosophy he articulated on day one
Who is Derrick Lee?
I don’t agree with needing to look for OF depth at all. CC, Ells and a Ross/Sweeny is well past good enough and then Lin as a possible 5th would be as good, or better than they have had since Drew’s 2nd year and when they still had Crisp as a backup.
Cherrington might want to focus on looking for more bodies as a 5th starter if anything for this team. Every other position on the team is fine, the BP is fine and they are deep in the backup role.
He may want to cease bringing in so many retreads however, or tell them when he signs them the will be playing at AA rather than AAA so his REAL prospects can get the playing time that they deserve against better competition.