Johnny Damon will sign within a month, ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports (on Twitter). The free agent outfielder/DH is looking for an opportunity with 450 plate appearances, according to agent Scott Boras.
"Damon will be signed by May 1st; just don't know where," Boras said.
The Braves are looking for outfield help, but the Indians, Yankees, Tigers and Orioles don't appear to be fits for the 38-year-old Damon. He hit .261/.326/.418 with 16 homers and 29 doubles in 582 plate appearances for the Rays in 2011. He was Tampa Bay's primary DH last year, but maintains he could still play the field if necessary. Boras suggested to MLBTR's Tim Dierkes a month ago that the market for his client would pick up toward the end of Spring Training.
If the Indians were interested in abreu they might as well take a look at Damon.
So if he doesn’t sign by May 1st does Boras owe us a percentage of Damnon’s contract?
what contract?
*If he signs after May 1st.
With an Independent team or in Korea? 🙂
sweet. hope the Braves sign him but I’m sure Damon won’t come cheap. No way he would get 450 plate appearances especially when Chip returns from the DL.
If Damon wants 3000 hits, I think he better suck it up and arrange contract with guaranteed playing time at a low cost. Unfortunately, I think he won’t get paid as much as he would like. On a separate note, I’m still surprised Vlad didn’t get signed.
Me too! Nobody wanted a bench bat?
Vlad was an exactly league average hitter with no power to speak of. He can’t play the field anymore and likely wouldn’t be worth what he thinks he is. He’s a first ballot Hall of Famer, but he’s just about done.
I assume that if he were to have any offers for “guaranteed playing time” he would have accepted by now.
Really not that much difference now in Damon and Sean Casey.. Casey was forced to retire from the game following the ’08 season because he was an awful fielding 1b, but was still a offensive (albeit light) hitting machine. Damon is an awful defensive OF on the best of days and his bat is still slipping, not so sure he could even produce an OBP as high as “The Mayor” did back in either 07-08 when he was winding up his career.
Key, is now they want people to play defense and those types just cannot, or be able to hit 25+ HR and Damon certainly isn’t going to do that, even at Yankee stadium anymore.
Do you think this type guarantee even exists? Would a team really do that, with baseball being a sport of skills? I think it is absurd to suggest that “guaranteed playing time” would actually be offered to an athlete. Damon might judge if a team has an opening for him or not. He might want to play, but the team will make him perform to stay in the lineup. I think the “guaranteed money” is all that matters.
No, the guarantee doesn’t exist. I think the closest you get is having a contract so obscene that they feel like they have to play you, but you’re a hairs-breadth away from a release at that point.
I do think people sometimes offer playing time (“we can’t offer the most money but we can give you a chance to play every day”), but it’s not a guarantee. If you’re bad enough, you’ll still find the bench — or release waivers.
If he doesn’t know where now, I don’t think it will get any easier to figure out in a month or so.
Not necessarily. I’m sure someone will get injured and he can step in.
Boras is doing a real disservice to his clients by not signing them early in the season. Paying too much for an older player in decline is so 2000’s…
“Paying too much for an older player in decline is so 2000’s”
So is Boras. He hasn’t figured out the economy is in a shambles and that there is no market for anyone, other than top tier FA. POSSIBLY, it will get beaten through his head after enough of his FA stand around without contracts after enough off seasons that his strategy is severely flawed.
with the new agreement – a flood of similar players are getting released before the season to avoid adding them to the 40 man roster and paying them $100K.
This was supposed to protect veterans, but in the end, a lot of them will never play again because of this rule.
Not just the rule, but Boras failed to understand the market would be loaded with DH’s this off season, the fact already that teams were not using a set DH and going with people who could play another position and resting those players in the slot and Boras sitting on his thumb, expecting teams to beat his door down for a DH, who is of no use in the field with ortiz, Mags, Vladdy on the market..ALL better than his client is with the bat.
This error in calculation might be a bigger blunder than his rejecting arbitration for Tek after 2008 and losing the guaranteed 10m, cause have a feeling Damon might be inline for a minor league contract, if that.
The Rays have Luke Scott who is capable of wreaking havoc and is able to play corner OF and corner IF, plus is a superb power threat..They won’t be interested. Anaheim already wants to unload their own version of Johnny Damon, NY has Ibanez.. There just isn’t a fit.
Vladdy is still out there and Anaheim could eat the contract of Abreu any day and give him away.. There is huge problems ahead and going to be curious how Boras stinks up the minor league deal Damon ends up with to make it sound grand.. It’s going to be one everyone needs to have hip waders on to not get wet…
The new agreement did not mean getting added to the roster. It provided players with 6+ years of service a 100,000 bonus if they went to the minors on a minor league contract. They also got an automatic opt out date.
Damon is looking for 450 plate appearances? Geez, tell me stat-man isn’t grossly obsessed with 3,000 hits.
Didn’t Boras say he would sign before the end of spring training?
Boras talks a lot of crap.
Damon got 647 plate appearances last year, but it was 582 at bats.
Scott Boros on April 30…
“Johnny Damon will be signed by June 1. I guarantee it.”
The Braves aren’t really a fit either. They don’t have room for him unless they plan to release Matt Diaz. Thanks to the recent trade for Juan Francisco the bench is full.
While I would love to see the Braves release Diaz and sign Damon, I don’t see that happening.
Why would you love to see us sign Damon? He can’t do much, can’t play the field worth a damn. He’s a decent hitter, but nothing better imo than anything we have. Not to mention he’ll cost us more $$.
It’s not that I like Damon. It’s that I think Matt Diaz is completely finished as a major league player. Damon can at least come off of the bench and hit a home run.
That’s what Hinske is there for. Diaz is primarily only going to play against left-handed pitchers, so Damon would not be a replacement for Diaz. They got Francisco because there are more right handed pitchers than left, so Francisco will start much more than Diaz (assuming he can still hit bombs and chipper will have a lot of time off). I don’t think there are many right-handed hitting LF that could fit a small platoon role as well as Diaz.
I wouldn’t mind having Damon around, pinch hitting atleast or DH’ing while Luke Scott plays the outfield
Damon miscalculated. He has some value, but no logical spot to fit in that would meet his playing time and economic demands. So he’s going to have to wait and hope that a need appears due to a serious injury. He’s not a championship-caliber regular anymore, although he could be useful in a situational role-but he doesn’t want a situational role. So, the major contenders steer away, because while Johnny would be a nice complimentary piece for 250 PA’s, he’s not going to be happy with that. For the non-contenders, they are better off going young and cheap. His best bet might be a fringe competitive team who could sign him to a discounted contract and might be able to flip him later to a contender for a prospect. At this stage, except for his legs, Damon isn’t much better than Bernie Williams was at the end of his career.
Everyone saw Moneyball. They heard the fat kid from Superbad say the A’s were better without Johnny Damon.
So every team is better without Johnny Damon
I think the Royals of the early 2000’s would disagree. Funny comment though.
If only he were 150 hits closer to 3000 he could probably get some team into investing a million for just the notoriety they’d get from the achievement. As it stands, like other posters here, I can’t see anyone signing him for more than 200-300 PAs. He needs to resign himself to being a part-time backup DH and OF for 3-4 years (if he can still hit for that long) if he wants to have any hope of getting to 3000.
I suppose if he were really desperate he could PAY the Twins or Astros to get him 500 ABs. Anyone know if that’s even legal?
LMAO. That’s funny. I’m sure he might if he gets impatient. I guess we’ll find out by June 1st.
No, not June 1st….then he’ll have to come back in 2013, too.
Older than the hills, and twice as dusty.
I think that both Damon and Boras are delusional. At least Vlad hit almost .300 last year. Damon cannot come close to that. His defensive skills were terrible to begin with, and now after 15 years they are non-existent. He will either take a cut rate deal like Manny did or he will be one of those guys who won’t officially retire until he’s been out of the league for three years.
Yes he will, I hear the Camden Riversharks will be looking for a weak-armed left fielder sometime in May to bat behind Toby Hall……. good luck with that Johnny!
Mid-season he’ll pick up with Boston, then retire at the end of the year.