Pirates GM Neal Huntington tells Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the club “made a mistake” in determining ace Gerrit Cole’s 2016 salary upon their initial take. “Gerrit’s base salary a year ago plus his bonus took him above our scale,” Huntington explained. “We initially did not incorporate the bonus that he earned last year for making the All-Star team. We made that adjustment, took him above our scale. Gerrit agreed. Unhappy with that. We understand that, we can empathize with him. At the same time there is a system in place that is negotiated by the union and by Major League Baseball.” Over the weekend, Cole voiced some displeasure with his modest salary, although the scale and the system to which Huntington alluded aren’t uncommon. Many clubs use algorithms based on service time and performance to determine the salary of pre-arbitration players, and the Pirates are simply acting as they would with any of their pre-arbitration players by adhering to that scale. (ESPN’s Buster Olney opines that the team would be wise to make a small concession on Cole’s behalf, suggesting a fairly marginal increase to $750K as a means of good will to acknowledge Cole’s importance to the club.) For those interested in reading more on the topic, MLBTR’s Zach Links examined the means by which pre-arb salaries are determined a couple of years ago.
Here’s more from the game’s Central divisions…
- There’s positive movement on the negotiation front between the Royals and catcher Salvador Perez, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. The sides have long been working toward a new deal for the backstop, who made good on his low-priced, early-career extension. It certainly will be interesting to see what kind of contractual arrangement is arrived at if something gets across the finish line.
- The Brewers’ center field situation is as wide open as spring battles get, and Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel takes a look at where things stand. There are as many as nine plausible candidates to claim the Opening Day gig, with possible bench spots and minor league opportunities also at stake, so there’s plenty of intrigue to go around. Skipper Craig Counsell calls it a “roster puzzle” that needs to be solved, and Haudricourt provides plenty of preliminary clues in the interesting piece.
- Cubs third base prospect Christian Villanueva suffered a broken right fibula during a Sunday workout and will miss several months recovering from the injury, reports MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat. Villanueva, who was expected to have surgery today, according to Muskat, was injured upon landing after leaping for a ball in play, said manager Joe Maddon. “It’s just crazy,” said Maddon. “It’s really unfortunate. This kid came in, ready to go. … It’s a tough break, literally, for him — he’s such a good kid.” Villanueva ranked 26th on MLB.com’s list of Top 30 Cubs prospects, though he’s fallen off Baseball America’s version of that same list after multiple prior appearances.
Cole needs to be quiet. He will be paid handsomely in arbitration next year.
Being cheap now is going to cost the Pirates MILLIONS in arbitration starting next season. Cole and Boras might have signed a deal that would have been team friendly through Cole’s arb eligible seasons or signed deals half way between team and player arb figures. Boras clients have done it many times. But not now. They are going to go to arbitration each and every time and Cole will win big piles of dough. Sorry, being cheap doesn’t pay with All Star players.
Bumping up his salary by 50% (Olney’s suggestion) for no good reason business-wise is also a good way for Cole to get extra millions out of arbitration.
its really isn’t going to effect arbitration much, the amount of money we’re talking about now shouldn’t make them pay much more than they would normally. Also while they’re taking into consideration that he is getting paid about 2-300k less than some would like now they should also consider they signed him to the (then) highest ever signing bonus.
I bet Cole is regretting not signing with the Yankees right about now. What the Pirates are doing is very small ball.
Very small ball? How is it any different than what the Cubs did last year with Bryant? It’s called running a business.
Speaking of Bryant and the Cubs? Remember how Boros whined about Bryant being sent down last year? Got all the fans wound up claiming the Cubs were killing their chances for post season last year? Not so much it turned out.
Who’s to say they wouldn’t have won the division (and home field advantage in the NL playoffs) if he had been there for the first two weeks of the year?
They may have won the division and had home field advantage in the NLCS if he played the first two weeks
Bryant missing the first two weeks last year had zero impact on the standings. With off days and rain out those two weeks amounted to 8 games. Cubs were either 6-2 or 5-3. It made no difference at all.
The Pirates are no different than every other team in how they handle pre-arb players, particularly pitchers. Including the Yankees.
imo if he was with the yankees , I bet Cashmen would still have him in triple A
Cashman prob would have traded him a couple of years ago for an established veteran. Look at the rotation the last several years. Built on FA and trades. Because the can.. Even if Cole had signed with the Yanks and if he was in the rotation now, he would still be paid right about the same as what he is being paid by the Pirates because that is how the business works with the CBA that is in place. The Pirates could have given him $2 million this year and that still would not make a difference in Coles FA decision in 4 years. It would only serve to screw up the salary structure not only for the Pirates and the rest of the roster, it would screw up the rest of the league. See how the league reacted to the Pirates overpaying for bonuses? No more big bonuses for draftees beyond the 1st round. Boros has complained about that too.
Cole said he is open to an extension with the pirates, thats gonna be tough
1.Boras client
2. Pirates are a small market team
3. Cutch wants to be a pirate for life,
gonna be tough
Mike Trout went through this with the Angels. Only the year before arbitration (right now for Cole) they gave him a good faith $1 Mill contract and followed that up with his $144 mill contract.
Yea and right now that contract looks like a bargin but Arte won’t surround trout with other talent because of the luxury tax.
That contract has a TON of value, which they needed w. the backend deals of a few guys looking really ugly.
Yankees do not trade pitching prospects often. So there is no reason to believe that cashman would have traded cole. Building the current rotation the Yankees traded one pitcher (hardly considered a high prospect) in david phelps – and that was for eovaldi. Eovaldi was the main piece given up by the Dodgers the year before to acquire hanley from the Marlins. Cash traded banuelos because he wasn’t the same post surgery. And prior to that cash traded to clippard in the granderson deal. If anything, cashman has held onto pitching prospects too tightly – Phil Hughes, joba, brackman.
I tend to agree with the rest of your comment.
Banuelos was once an untouchable prospect and was going to be the future but wasen’t the same after Surgery, maybe he can find magic with the braves.
They could have paid him a few thousand more without catching the wrath of other owners.
Just for giggles.. Looked up Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts salaries for 1st full season.. Knew Boston paid kids more than most teams do from past contracts (no arbitration cases since like 2001-2), but was curious on year 1 guys with players who performed like Cole did, even if neither of those are pitchers.. Bogaerts was paid 517k in 2014 when he only had 18 regular season games under his belt and made 543k with 1 full season. Betts was paid 514.500 last year with 52 games prior.
Cole made 512.5 starting 19G in 2013 and 531k his 2014 starting 23, both seasons he was VERY good.
It seems to me they could pay him a bit more also.
Many teams have a habit of signing ALL STAR guys like Cole that are pre-arb to long-term deals that buy out their arb years. Especially small market teams like the Pirates. Even some big market teams like the Angels. That will never happen now. The Pirates are gonna pay through the nose for being cheap now.
The yankees offered him a 4million signing bonus out of the draft.. the pirates gave him 8. He’ll make more here until he hits FA.
“It’s a tough break, literally, for him.”
Get it? Because he broke his fibula? You aren’t laughing. Do you not get it?
haha
Strongly agreed on Buster’s idea of a small raise, but looking at it from Cole’s perspective, he is in a position where other people who do the same thing as he does need Tommy John pretty often, which can end a career. Sometimes I really wish MLB would just pay people based purely on on-field performance no matter what age they are.
The CBA prevents a lot of paying for market value, especially for the younger players.
lol…that goes against most tenets of how unions work. They are all about seniority and, “paying your dues”. For every superstar there are 30 guys who have far less leverage and are trying to maximize their earns because they probably won’t get huge extensions.
What I meant by the CBA preventing market value, it is about limiting bonus money to draftees, the arbitration system, keeping guys in the minors as long as possible to keep control longer and delay paying bigger market value. Slotting of draft picks for signing amounts.. This is the first year that you had guys accept qualifying offers and teams signing this many guys that got qualifying offers. All under the CBA. The system lends to underpaying young guys and they have to worry about career ending injuries early in their playing days. The Union were all for bigger paydays for the older guys as in any union, most of the votes come from older, more established employees. The agents were cool with the huge paydays for the established guys but now are complaining about their younger clients getting the short end as the agents are losing out on younger guys money now. Not more huge bonuses/long term deals for draftees. All are slotted and teams are penalized if they overpay for a kid. The Pirates success in overspending on below 1st round draft picks got the rules changed so that you could not overpay to entice a kid to not go to college. See Josh Bell.
Cole rec’d an $8 million signing bonus. That was a generous payment that should be considered part of his salary over the course of 4 years before Arb years kick in. That’s an AAV of $2.5M/yr when you include his base salary at over $500k.. No question he has out-pitched his salary but that’s what he agreed to.
.Hey Cole, STFU and pitch!
All these guys that go for the jugular in free agency want to cry about their current deals. He got 8 million as a signing bonus I believe the highest ever at the time. Suck it up and you’ll get plenty when arbitration hits. Then hit free agency and get 250-300 million. People act like this might upset him and affect their ability to sign him down the road. I doubt that. I say the pirates have every right to save the money while they can. He has every incentive to keep performing. Imagine what a guy with that kind of track record will get in his first free agent deal. He’ll be rewarded no need to cry over a 100-200k. He got 8 million as a signing bonus before he put on the uniform. How many guys get millions and are total busts? Are we expecting teams to pay if guys are busts and pay more than they are obligated if a guy does well. Hell of an arrangement for the players that’s for sure
Tired of the wining and entitlement from players and agents alike. Go get a real job if you don’t like it.
Boo hoo, Cole. In a few years you’ll be making over $20 million per season. The team has the hammer the first few years of a player’s career. Get over it.
Pitt did what every other team would’ve done. They have the hammer now and used it. When Cole has the hammer he’ll use it on them.
Just business. Nothing to see here.
Exactly. The Pirates could have given him $5 million this year and you can be rest assured that Boros and Cole would both say thanks much now but not want to lower their demands when he goes for the gusto after 2019. Do not blame the Bucs now nor will I blame Cole when he hits the open market. as you say, it is just business. Every team and every player/agent conducts the business this way now. Nothing wrong with either side.
The Angels didn’t with Trout and they got a real nice bonus in terms of tens of millions of dollars saved on a team friendly long term deal. The Pirates are going to take it in the shorts every season after this one when Boras and Cole take them to the arbitration panel each and every time he is eligible. They saved a few thousand this year, maybe even 60 or 70 thousand, buts its going to cost them millions once he is arbitration eligible at the end of the season.
Pirates did well with their 2 All Star caliber OF in McCutchen and Marte, They have been trying to do the same with Polonco as well. I just do not see Boros advising Cole to sign a team friendly extension when he is a top tier pitcher. Boros and Cole both know they will get top dollar in arbitration. Pirates know that too. As long as Cole stays healthy, he will break the bank in FA. All know that. Even if the Pirates gave Cole $5 Million this year instead of $541k, they still would have to pay the same huge amounts in arbitration and still not be able to sign Cole as a FA. Nature of the business. I am a Pirates fan, I have no problem with the Pirates paying what they are paying him as all teams do very similar things payroll wise. I have no problem with Cole getting the highest he can get paid as that is what all top pitchers do. Again nature of the business.
Cole’s situation reminds me of how Mark McGwire agreed not to take an arbitration-eligible raise in 1992 after a terrible 1991 season, but they forgot about his ’91 All-Star bonus (due to one of those situations when the fans voted too much on reputation over performance), so he actually wound up with a pay cut.
Problem is he is not ANY player. He is the Buccos best pitcher. You don’t treat stars and scrubs the same. Not if you want to win.
Bonus babies shouldn’t be crying about pre arb salaries, he’s already set for life. The ego on some of these ball players! Image down Cole.
Nah. He is a special talent, best pitcher on their squad and now they alienated him over a few thousand dollars. Boras has signed players like him to long term deals many times before, but you can bet he won’t now. They may have had a shot at him compromising on a deal in arbitration, now they can expect to go to arbitration and pay record deals each year. It will cost them millions, upon millions of dollars to be cheap. Yes the Pirates had that right, but its not smart to be pennywise and dollar foolish.
How would a million or two more now save them in arbitration or in FA? Boros and Cole would be foolish to sign anything long term now. I would love it to happen if were to happen as have been a Pirates fan since the late 60’s when I was old enough to start paying attention to them. I just do not think Boros would advise him to sign nor should he as agent. Best advice is to go large in Arbitration and be the Zach Greinke of 2020 when he hits the free market. It is a huge risk for Cole but he still would command more in arbitration then he would get in a team friendly deal that would at least cover a year or so of FA. No amount of money now would cause a player to give up that much to avoid a hearing. Would not save the Pirates enough as they would have to be somewhere close in what they offer compared to what Cole files for in arbitration to even have a shot at compromising. Would be prob be a million or under in difference between the figures and if that were the case that would mean the compromise would be under a million to settle.. Tell me how that benefits the Pirates long term.
How do you give a garbage pitcher in jeff Locke 2 million dollar raise for being an awful 5th starter and Cole a dominate ace 500k
If you are going to follow the transactional side of the game, you’ll need to accept this sort of thing. It’s a very direct result of how the MLB/MLBPA collective bargaining agreement is structured to reward players as they accrue service time.
Locke is arbitration-eligible, Cole isn’t yet. That’s it. Barring catastrophic injury, Cole will vastly out-earn him when he reaches his first turn of eligibility next winter. Dallas Keuchel got $7.25MM this year, and Cole could get something close to that or even exceed it with a huge season.
I am guessing Cole will exceed Keuchel barring injuriy. Locke will have earned over $6 million after this season Cole will have made over $11 million before he even hits arbitration next year through his final season under his rookie deal. . His first arbitration deal will give him more total money that Locke will ever make in his career total.
Guessing ironcitie listens to what the local sports talk guys say and parrot it. They are the ones who bring up stuff like what Locke earns and compare it to Cole and leave out details like the 8 million to 675k difference in signing bonuses between the 2 guys. It does wind up the fans though!