Scott Boras is “pushing to create options” for his power-hitting client, Chris Davis, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). Per Olney, Boras has been “selling” teams on Davis’s ability to be an everyday corner outfielder as well as a first baseman. We’ve heard that suggestion previously, of course — including from Boras himself — but it’s certainly interesting to hear that the super-agent is still pressing the concept this late in the offseason.
Here’s more on the free agent market:
- We’ve heard that the Rockies have continued interest in Gerardo Parra, with Jon Heyman saying yesterday that the team is pushing to add him. Indeed, says Chris Cotillo of SB Nation, Colorado is aggressively pursuing the veteran outfielder. (Twitter links.) The Nationals and Angels are among the other teams that are at least dabbling in Parra’s market, he adds. Obviously, a signing by Colorado would be doubly interesting, as it could suggest that the team is lining up a deal involving one of its incumbents.
- Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, on the other hand, hears that the Angels are “still not really involved” in the top of the free agent outfield market. (Twitter link.) That includes Parra as well as players like Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes, and Dexter Fowler. Fletcher adds that he sees a trade for a lower-cost option, such as Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies, to be a more realistic outcome.
- Denard Span said in his introductory press conference today that he feels good and is well on track to be at full speed this spring, as CSN Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic reports. He chose San Francisco, per Boras (who is also his agent), because the team met his three-year ask and were “a priority because of the fit for them and the fit for Denard.” Club CEO Larry Baer, meanwhile, said that “Denard has been on our radar for a long time.“
- Span drew real interest from the Orioles, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, but Baltimore was never going to guarantee more than a single season. Unsurprisingly, the O’s weren’t alone in that regard, as Boras says that fully eleven teams had interest in Span on a one-year arrangement, as Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reports.
This wait to find out if we are going to have an actual left fielder or not in 2016 has been excruciating. So many options, so little money..and so few trading chips.
who’s we? the Angels?
Sorry. I thought the icon made that clear.
I would still like the Angels to sign Fowler and put him in lead off. There isn’t much a market for Fowler so the Angels should be able to get him for a 2 year deal for around 16 to 18 million over the 2 years.
You are ridiculously undervaluing Fowler. If he can’t net 4 years, he’ll sign a pillow contract of at least $12MM.
Fowler is injury pron. The teams that were looking for a centerfielder all have filled there need, except Washington. If the Angels offer 2 years 18 million Fowler would more than likely jump on it.
Fowler’s injury prone? Since when?
More importantly why would Fowler “jump” at a 2-18 deal? This is arguably his highest earning potential free agency year given he has proven consistent production even after leaving the offensively skewed Coors field and turns 30 this coming year.
It’s the best offer?
He isn’t getting many offers. Most teams don’t want to give up a draft pick for him. Yes he is injury pron every season he misses time because he lands on the DL.
Fowler will get more. But even at that price it would put the Angels over the luxury tax. They need to either bite the bullet and get something good or see what can be had for under $5 million for one year.
I think the Angels should dump CJ on a team like the Orioles. They would have to eat a lot of the salary and probably wont get much in return but it would free up space to get Parra or Fowler without exceeding the luxury tax threshold.
I think the Angels will sign Chris Davis
The Orioles are not on Wilson’s of teams that he can be traded to. The teams the Angels can trade him to is Dodgers, Padres, Giants, A’s, Mariners and Rangers. Which the Giants were interested in him last year, but Dipoto didn’t make the trade.
They’d have to pay at least $15 million of the $20. CJ isn’t going anywhere. (But, yeah, I wish he was.)
More likely to happen well into ST.
Not likely he liked Maddon and for two years he would go back to the Cubs where he was loved.
As much as I’d like to make fun of Boras for overplaying his had with Davis the man has ways of suddenly making huge deals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Davis still gets a huge deal.
Right….baseball fans want to see Boras fail but he just doesn’t do it often….
T
I think everyone saw Boris turn down $150 for 7 years and said that’s too much. So now nobody is making overs cause they know Boris will say no. Eventually Davis will take Orioles offer or take less. If anyone offers more then they are crazy. $150 million is sentimental value not not how much he’s worth.
Nothing against Davis but I’d love to see this blow up in Boras face
Is there enough money in the O’s bank account to get Davis and Fowler? Fowler would be a nice fit as a RF who can slide to CF if Jones gets hurt and would make a nice leadoff hitter, with the new Korean guy batting 2nd, Jones 3rd, Davis 4th, Machado 5th, followed by Trumbo, Wieters, Schoop, and Hardy. Give Fister a 2 year deal to fill the rotation spot left by Chen and hope that Tillman and Gonzalez bounce back and Gausman takes the next step to become the ace we can’t afford to buy on the open market.
Chanting Boris lose all his guys make one team in Korian league
$150 over seven years was never going to get it done!
Orioles holding fast and not bidding against themselves.
Why bid higher when no teams are involved! But being an O’s fan I wouldn’t be shocked if O’s leak a rumor of 7/150m just to say we try to get fans to support them
That’s where I’m at; the O’s needed to show they were willing to stick it out with a couple high dollar contracts (O’Day, Davis, etc) to keep the fans buying tickets. After letting faves like Markakis walk (which wasn’t a bad idea) and then signing lackluster guys (Jimenez) the base wants to see success continued. I don’t think any teams are bidding against the O’s. At this point, Davis might not get $20 mil for 5 years…from another team.
The O’s need to offer that to Davis 5/100m and drop the offer by 1 m a day
Blackmon isn’t a bad “settle” for the Angels. Dude’s pretty solid all around, has some pop, steals a ton of bases, and would probably be a plus left fielder. And he’s left handed.
Blackmon would look dang good in a Cardinals uni…dang good!
Blackmon isn’t a “settle” at all. But what do they give up to get him?
Blackmon’s home/road splits would scare me to death if I was on the receiving end of any deal. How can you trust that you’re getting a good player vs. getting a guy who can only hit in Colorado?
You don’t evaluate players based only on their road numbers, especially players who play in extreme home parks. Jose Fernandez’ career road ERA is almost 4. Garrett Richards rocked a 4.6 road ERA in 2015. It goes on and on. You judge them based on their overall numbers, knowing that playing in an extreme environment messes them up on the road as much as it helps them at home.
Not only that, when breaking down his road numbers by ballpark, I found that most of his ‘lack of production’ occurred in small sample sizes in random parks outside of his division, especially in interleague play. He actually does very well in his rival NL West pitchers parks. That tells me that Blackmon would likely do just fine at the Big A. And fans also need to remember that there are plenty of good hitters parks the Angels travel to in succession throughout the course of a season. Throughout their history, Angels players have almost always had good road numbers with a regression at home. I think Blackmon is a great option. And if I remember correctly, he has yet to even reach $1 million in salary. I think it would be a smart move overall if you ask me.
His home run/pa and double/pa numbers are nearly identical home vs road. Wouldn’t scare me a bit if I were an Angels fan.
The numbers in both money and years that Davis and Boras are seeking asks teams to ignore the huge risk involved with a 30 year old player who hit sub .200 just two years ago. I don’t know why the Orioles (or any team, for that matter) would want to take such a huge gamble when, if it fails, it is going to cripple their franchise for years.
Chris Davis just isn’t a very exciting player in my book. He checks all the boxes of what you would want in a power hitting first baseman but for some reason he lacks the hype Teixeira had back in 2008. One thing hurting him badly is how all of the notoriously big spending teams either have solid first baseman or are done spending money. Boras tried the same trick on Baltimore that he used on the Yankees with ARod a few years ago and it backfired. Duquette isn’t Hank Steinbrenner and he realized when Boras was trying to get him to bid against himself. Turning down $150m was a huge mistake and waiting this long trying to save face instead of just admitting his mistake and working something out with Baltimore could prove disastrous if they move on to Cespedes or Upton. Boras has needed a reality check for a few years now and I hope he finally gets it. Maybe Davis should wisen up and go to Angelos himself and try to mend things. Because the only one that is going to get hurt is Davis. Boras’s ego will take a blow but he will be back to his old ways quickly and Davis will get stuck with a pillow contract hoping next year turns out better.
Teams take huge gambles because the opportunity to win a world series doesn’t come around often. Arod got 250 million, the Mets might still be paying Bobby Bonilla and Max Scherzers kids could be playing pro ball by the time the Nats stop paying him. Davis will get paid if nothing else other than the fact the the next best 1b free agent is… Pedro Alvarez?
O’s should talk Alvarez and Upton/Cespedes and look for pitcher that will take a 1 year
Seems like the FA logjam for OF is centered in the Davis/Boros/Orioles Triangle.
Boros wants to get more than the $150MM the Orioles offered, so he tries to market Davis as an outfield option.(Good luck with that). He wants to fabricate a market for the Orioles to bid against. Meanwhile, all the other teams are waiting for Davis to sign some sort of deal,(more than likely with the Orioles) for the $21-22MM range that has been offered (7/$150MM) to set the ceiling for power hitters. That should bring the market expectations down for the agents of Cespedes and Upton. All other teams and FA are waiting to see who loses out on those two, so they can bit on option #2.
Or the Orioles move on past Davis and sign someone, using up the $$$ set aside for Davis,and leaving him high and dry. Then a new, short term market will develop to land Davis, that could stall the OF market and we start all over again.
The music is going to stop playing soon, and all FA will be scrambling for seats.Only 5-6 weeks left till players report to Spring Training.
Wasn’t the offer to Davis 6/$150MM?
I don’t think they ever confirmed how many years, just that it was six or seven years.
Seven years, and likely a ton of deferred money.
No it was 7
With offense at such a premium over the last few years, and considering next year’s FA class lack there of, I’m very surprised Upton and Cespedes are still on the market. As a St. Louisan, I wouldn’t mind seeing either one wearing the birds on the bat. Please don’t reference the attached compensation pick that comes with both of them either. We received 2 for Lackey and Heyward. I think we can sacrifice one of them (an unknown value at this time), for the known value of one of these 2 sluggers. Do we want to compete next year, or do we want to retool? The trade for Gyorko and the signing of Leake indicates we want to compete in 2016, so let’s get that impact bat that we desperately need while it’s available.
As a Pittsburghian, I’d hate to see Upton or Cespedes’ value drop to the Cards’ affordability. That being said, I think Cards have bigger issues in the infield at 1b and no real backup SS.
Side note, best baseball quote I’ve heard all year was “Griffey Jr. just became the closest to being unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame, too bad he isn’t even the best baseball player born in Donora, PA on November 21st. That man is Stan the Man.”
Curious who Fletcher believes the Angels have to trade to the Rockies for Blackmon. It’s going to take a pretty nice package to get a guy that has 3 years of team control left after 2016 and has put up 17 and 19 hrs the past two seasons with similar HR/PA and Double/PA numbers at home and on the road.
Fletcher suggested Tropeano and Bedrosian. Seems like a fair deal to me.
I randomly discovered Blackmon myself about a month ago when looking at alternatives for the Angels. He fits exactly what the Angels need at the top of their lineup, and what they had for years until they lost Chone Figgins. And I think it would be smart since he’s making near minimum salary. I don’t think they’d have to mortgage the farm, because Blackmon isn’t a superstar. He’s that guy you bring in to bridge the gap. And if they can’t get him, make a deal for Dickerson.
The main concern I see with Chris Davis is his lack of consistency. That one bad year being so recent really causes questions about what you are really buying. If every year is like last year, he’s worth what he’s asking. But what if he turns out like Dunn with the White Sox? That’s what all the GMs are leery about. It could be a career ending move if it fails.
You are right about Davis.Which Davis will you get in 2016?? When he falls off, it could be fast and far. Plus the fact that Boros is scrambling to get ANYONE to bid against the Orioles. Bad timing for Davis.
I think the only reason he did not take the Baltimore deal is because Boros said “No!”. If it returns back on the table, he should jump on it. Otherwise I can see him getting a short term deal,(3-4years) with a 1 year opt out.
Parra or Blackmon are the perfect fits for the angels