SATURDAY: The deal is now complete, Heyman tweets. Heyman also adds that Jackson will receive a full no-trade clause, which is somewhat remarkable given Jackson’s situation. Of course, the Marlins will only pay Jackson $507.5K, so the no-trade clause shouldn’t be a significant hindrance to the Marlins.
MONDAY 11:33pm: There’s a deal in place pending physical, per Jon Heyman (via Twitter).
1:50pm: The Marlins are nearing an agreement on a Major League contract with right-hander Edwin Jackson, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro (via Twitter). Miami was first reported to have interest in the 32-year-old Legacy Agency client last week. Because Jackson is still slated to be paid $13MM from the Cubs in the final season of his four-year, $52MM contract with Chicago, he’d only cost Miami the league minimum, which would be subtracted from the sum owed to Jackson by the Cubs.
While Jackson’s contract with the Cubs will go down as a bust, he rather quietly enjoyed a strong season split between the Chicago and Atlanta bullpens last year. In 47 relief appearances totaling 55 2/3 innings, Jackson posted a 3.07 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 41.1 percent ground-ball rate. His 93.9 mph average fastball was his strongest mark of the past four seasons, although that shouldn’t come as a surprise when factoring in the move to short relief stints. When previously linked to Jackson, the Marlins were said to be considering him for their rotation, though one has to imagine that a relief role is a possibility as well, should a deal ultimately be agreed upon.
The addition of Jackson, Frisaro tweets, will not preclude the Marlins from continuing to search for upgrades to their pitching staff. Perhaps, then, the Marlins are merely looking at Jackson as depth for the rotation that can be transferred to the bullpen in the event that another arm is acquired either via free agency or trade. Relying on Jackson as a fallback rather than a set-in-stone rotation member would seem a reasonable course of action for Miami, who entered the day with a rotation picture consisting of Jose Fernandez, Jarred Cosart, Adam Conley, Tom Koehler and one of David Phelps or Justin Nicolino.
Not hard to release him when he starts pitching, well, like Edwin Jackson.
Pitch like Edwn Jackson…you make this guy sound successful.
He’s quite a bit south of .500 as a pitcher with an ERA over 4.
Regardless of how bad a defense he pitched in front of, or whether he had a “good ground ball rate” this guy should be lucky he’s making what he’s making.
Pitching like Edwin Jackson indeed!
He’s not worth 1/10th of what he’s making this year, but that’s a result of a badly negotiated contract (by Theo), not because of his “talent level”……..But you can’t blame the Marlins for taking a shot at using him in long relief (which he was pretty successful at) when it only costs them the league minimum salary to take that chance……..
Yes, because wins and losses are a true test of a pitchers talents.
Case in point…anyone care to look up Nolan Ryan’s 1987 season?
“Major league deal”…. How
3.07 era
55ip
44hits
May not be worth 12mil, but still ML contract worthy
I didn’t see him pitch much for the Braves, but when he was pitching for the Cubs in 2015, it was the lowest pressure/mop-up duty only. He was never in when it mattered. A nice era, but I don’t see it being sustainable unless he is only in low-leverage situations moving forward.
Still getting Big League hitters out no matter what the situation is.
Plus…..there’s a “place for those guys” in MLB…….when you are down 11-1 in the 5th inning, you don’t want “your best relievers” working that game anyway…..right? I wish I had the talent to get paid $507,500/year……..even if it was for sweeping out the dugout after the games were over…….Hey….wait a second…………
“Hey Jeff, Do you have any of those jobs available???”………LOL
Not at 12-13 MM per year it isn’t!
4.47 xFIP
.247 BAbip (2015)
.310 BAbip (career)
Lowest K rate since 2008 despite fastball playing up in relief
Bad bet to repeat
Why is it a Bad Bet when Cubs are picking up all but ML minimum of his salary. 3.07 era is the END result of all those appearances
because ERA isn’t the only measure of a good pitcher? and while it might not cost he Marlins any money, if Jackson pitcher to last years peripherals, he WILL cost them games….
He’s going to pitch in those “low-leverage, mop up duty” situations…..not when the game is on the line………smh
Good deal for the Marlins because they’re taking advantage of a very, very bad Cubs contract to Jackson that was way over-valued. You can say what you want about the Marlins but they tend to run their ball club like a business.
Would that mean that the Cubs owe Jackson $13mil minus league minimum for 2016 ($12.48-ish million)? Also, what would happen if there were somehow multiple teams interested? If one team paid over league minimum, is that even less money the Cubs owe him for 2016?
It would mean less money the Cubs owe, generally in that situation Jackson gets to pick his preferred destination since the only way he’d get more money is for a team to top what the Cubs will be paying him next year
If, for some reason, some other club paid him $750K instead of $512K, yes, it would reduce the amount Chicago owes him. Of course, it wouldn’t actually increase Jackson’s income for the year, so there’s zero incentive for any club to write a bigger check for him. This is truly the one scenario where all the “looking for a good fit” and “a place where my family is happy” quotes FA’s who summarily ignore such things in favor of the largest payday possible would actually be applicable. He’s getting the same money anywhere, so he can go to the environment that works best for him.
Thanks for the clarification, disgruntled. I was not aware that the Cubs $13mil owed could be reduced. I thought they were locked into that no matter what.
There would be some incentive IF multiple teams were interested. You still have to outbid the other guy.
Edwin Jackson will make the exact same amount of money ($13M) in 2016 whether he sits at home, gets a league minimum contract, or a $12M contract from a club. Unless you offered him more than $13M for 2016, it would not change his total earnings in any way shape or form.
A club exec might want to convince Jackson that the offer he is presenting is more compelling than anyone else’s, but saying “hey, I’m willing to pay 4.5% of what you’ll make this year instead of 3.8% of what you’ll make this year” better not be his primary selling point!
He will make the exact same amount of money IF he is only signed for one year. Did you ever consider that there might be some incentive to sign him to a multiyear deal? Signing him to a backloaded two year contract might get him to sign with you instead of another team. Signing a 2 year $4M contract and backloading it as much as legally allowed would earn him more money than signing him to a 1 year deal for the same amount.
No, that absolutely did not occur to me,or anyone who is familiar with Edwin Jackson.
I’m a big fan of moves for “post-hype” prospects in general…but not 12 years after the hype lol
Would be his tenth different team in his age 32 season. Talk about a journeyman.
I had the displeasure of watching Edwin Jackson pitch for the Cubs.
You can’t pay someone enough money to make him care.
It would be nice if the brewers or reds snagged him. Then he has a chance of pitching against the cubs for all those head to head games. They could put up some runs quick!
All reports have noted Edwin to be an excellent teammate who has always cared and worked hard at the game.
I get the same impression, but this just seems like a depth move
I think Jackson has always gotten a raw deal. If you take salary out of the equation and just look at what he did on the field then he wasn’t THAT bad. Well he was for the Cubs in 2013 and 2014, but for his career as a whole (including last season) he has been a solid MLB pitcher. He’d be a good veteran presence for a young bullpen.
he was actually that bad on the field…. the only times he wasn’t pitching like complete garbage was low pressure mop up relief work.
To his credit he was never a problem child in the clubhouse… but believe me, all the bad things being said about him on the field are warranted.
Why should we believe you? Are you some kind of expert?
because i’m a Cubs fan who had to actually watch him pitch the last few years.
So in mop up outings you don’t face ML hitters?? Or do the hitters not swing the bats? Your arrogance in posts give off the impression that you are an “expert”
No, but there is less pressure. He can pitch with less pressure in mop-up than in a close game.
are your instant hostility implies you find my level of knowledge somehow threatening. and your rush to attack the messenger rather than the message implies you don’t actually have enough information to refute what was said. you may wish to work on these things,
and while you may be facing major league hitters… usually ‘mop up’ duty implies they’re the bench players because the starters have been pulled… because the game is out of reach.
so yeah, if you really think the Marlins biggest need was getting outs from their rivals b-list players in games they already won, you could see this as a great deal.
Your level of knowledge threatening? Laughable. All people like you do on these thread is say how “TERRIBLE” players are, when you, me
I wouldn’t want my young team around him. He’s lazy and he was plain awful with the Cubs.
Hard to be lazy
How you figure he’s Lazy?? B/c someone doesn’t perform well they are lazy? You seen him workout b4? You been in the clubhouse?
Complete false statement
I believe Kendrick misjudged the market and should have accepted the QO. He’s probably going to have to return to LA on a greatly reduced amount because no one is going to give up a high draft pick for an aging second baseman. The Dodgers realize this and are waiting him out. He “might” get a contract with a second year option based on plate appearances but he’s probably looking at a 1 year deal at best.
I agree and would add that there were several players that should have accepted their QO this season…….Kendrick certainly should have, Desmond was another one. I was surprised that Ian Kennedy even got one, so he should have accepted as well……..imho
Fish would be better off signing Mark Buehrle out of possible retirement than signing this career long bust.
Last year they pretty much gave away Eovaldi for a utility player and 5m in salary relief for another bad sign, now they want to sign one of the worst starters in the league over the last 3 seasons, who has made an entire career of not fulfilling expectations?
Hey John Silver, what are your career goals and expectations? Whether he had good career or not, he made it there and did more than you will ever do. Made TONS more $ than you prob ever will. I’m sure he filled his own expectations
Ummm.. My career has finished, Thank you very much and it wasn’t to awfully bad. Without going into detail on a baseball topic? Did pretty much what intended to from the start, more than most lazy millennials every will. And you?
I’m Doing just FINE over here! I’m guessing Jackson pretty much did same as well.
What if I’m way better at my job than a ball player is at his job?
Then you are congrats…..but you just like me are on a forum commenting on someone’s career.
I’d be really interested to hear how you would compare your job and performance to that of a Major League player. Are you one of the best 750 in the world in your field at any given moment at your job? Have you been in the top 750 for the past 10+ years?
Edwin Jackson has accumulated 10+ years of service. 1,100 or so players that have ever played have accrued 10+ years. An even smaller number have earned $50+MM during their careers. When you’re talking about MLB players that have that much service time and have made that much money (we are talking business career and skill) you’re talking about a tremendously successful career in that particular field.
We could then go on to discuss the difficulties of the profession Jackson is in. Extremely competitive, high speed, high stress, high skill. So again, how would you even quantify what you do and compare it to baseball?
I spent 3 deployments running around Afghanistan. Would you compare baseball to a career like that? You should probably know exactly what someone does before comparing it to a grown man playing a game for a living no matter how good he is at it. We can then go on to discuss other high stress high skill professions out there like police officers, firefighters, nurses, emt’s ect. There are several other more qualified professions out there that deserve your praise over professional athletes.
Coffin Nail,
“I spent 3 deployments running around Afghanistan” – Thank you for your service.
“Would you compare baseball to a career like that?”- I’m not sure how plausible that would be. I personally would never compare them because I think it’s pretty absurd. I guess for arguments sake it would depend on what part of the two activities you were comparing. From a sacrifice/danger/traumatizing perspective I wouldn’t. It’s not even close. From a technical and physical difficulty standpoint you could find similarities. It would depend on the personal experiences of the two that are being compared.
“You should probably know exactly what someone does before comparing it to a grown man playing a game for a living no matter how good he is at it”
That was part of the point of my post. It would depend on what you did for a living. Being able to quantify the difficulties and challenges of each profession to bring them to a comparable lens would be formidable. A “grown man playing a game for a living” doesn’t change the difficulty of participating in the field itself. Professional sports are big business, high stress, high skill arenas of work. You can denigrate or eulogize them as much as you’d like, but the reality is the competition to become one of these guys is some of the highest on the planet. Every little kid plays sports and at some point, 99% of them get weeded out. It’s one of the few jobs that you unknowingly directly train and prepare for from the age of seven. The skill and precision developed during that time period is ridiculously high. That’s why so few that participate in sports can become a high level professional in sports (MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA). We are talking millions of kids around the world that get weeded out over the years. I’m absolutely not trying to belittle you, but you can walk into a recruitment office and they’ll give you a gun and a uniform. That doesn’t put you onto a SEAL team, in an SFOD, or with MARSOC. The same is true for professional sports or any other job. You can go buy a glove, a bat, but that doesn’t make you a starting pitcher in an MLB rotation. Again, please understand that I believe baseball is a joke compared to what you did overseas, but I’m purely presenting an argument.
“We can then go on to discuss other high stress high skill professions out there like police officers, firefighters, nurses, emt’s ect”
Sure, we can.
“There are several other more qualified professions out there that deserve your praise over professional athletes.”
The foundation of this argument was never about which professions deserve praise over another.
You must not have ever seen Martin prado play before, that guy can flat out hit. Just because he’s versatile in the field doesn’t make him a “utility player”
Exactly. A career .291
“Career-long bust” is an odd way to describe a guy that posted a 4.06 ERA and 105 ERA+ in about 1000 innings from 2008-12. Jackson was never a star, but he was a fine pitcher from ages 24 to 29 before bombing with the Cubs.
Yeah, don’t forget that he was an important part of the Colby Rasmus trade that helped the Cardinals pull off an unforgettable September and October run that led to the 2011 World Series Championship.
Steve….defending your article again.
You need to take a look at the stats on what you said.
Let us do the commenting.
Career long busts don’t play accrue ten years of service and make $64MM.
Marlins who’d have had a lot of rotation arms if they kept
Nathan Eovaldi / Andrew Heaney / Anthony DeSclafani
that’s for sure.
Agree
I saw Edwin Jackson with the Cardinals. Nothing special nothing terrible. Lost track of his career but bullpen numbers provided look serviceable and certainly league minimum worthy. With these ballooning contracts I don’t have an issue with a financially strapped team like the Marlins trying to find value at a low payroll cost. Worth 13 million? Hell no not even close even at today’s standard. But a few hundred thousand sure. If he provides something near comparable to his bullpen numbers he’s a good value
Agreed
I hope Edwin does well down in South Florida. As a Cub fan, I always hoped he could turn it around for us. It was bittersweet when the Cubs were forced to cut him. He seemed like a good guy and hope he pitches well for the Marlins in so much as it doesn’t hurt the Cubs chances.
He was very cordial with me and other fans in Mesa in 2013. Seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
I think the tigers made a mistake trading him, (all be it was for Scherzer and a slew of other guys who were better) I just feel like he could have been so good with the tigers he had a really chill year with the tigers and (smartly now) traded him for talent.
Lol 5 years of Scherzer for one year of Edwin Jackson was a mistake BC Edwin Jackson could have had a chill year with them?
Dusty Baker, Barry Bonds, and Edwin Jackson walk into the Marlins clubhouse….lol.
Millionaires???
Man, someone needs to make an awesome punchline for this. But Dusty Baker is the Nationals manager, unless we are disregarding teams.
Great pickup
Wow, great is a word I wouldn’t use