Andrew Miller’s four-year, $36MM deal with the Yankees from the 2014-15 offseason has become one of the most influential contracts in recent baseball history, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman opines. Miller’s contract set a new standard for non-closer relievers, and its value has only grown in import thanks to the Indians’ usage of Miller as a multi-inning fireman. As teams have put a focus on deep and flexible bullpens, relievers have been increasingly well-compensated in free agency; even during this unusually slow offseason, several relief arms have scored hefty multi-year commitments. The fact that many notable relievers out-earned several notable sluggers and starting pitchers this winter is of no small concern to Miller, who is also a Players Association Representative. “We have to understand the economics of how this works. If one position or one skill is valued more highly, you probably will have another skill valued not as highly,” Miller noted.
Some more from around the baseball world as we head into a new week…
- Seibu Lions left-hander Yusei Kikuchi has continued to express interest in a jump to Major League Baseball, with some in the industry feeling that the 26-year-old could land close to a $100MM deal from a North American team, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin writes (subscription required). Kikuchi has a 2.76 ERA, 8.0 K/9 and a 2.30 K/BB rate over 871 2/3 innings for Seibu (plus a brief stint in the Australian Baseball League in his rookie year). Since Kikuchi is older than 25, he is exempt from the international bonus pool system, and he should command a hefty contract from teams bidding for his services should Seibu decide to post him — Kikuchi isn’t eligible for complete free agency until 2020.
- Andrew Cashner wouldn’t have signed his two-year, $16MM deal with the Orioles unless he was allowed to keep his beard, Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun reports. The O’s usually have a ban on facial hair (besides “a well-manicured goatee”) but an exemption was made for Cashner, provided that he keeps his beard neatly trimmed. “I just think it’s a part of who I am, and it’s a part of my personality — it’s just me. I think this length is kind of what it’s supposed to be, I guess,” Cashner said, who noted that he disliked having to shave his beard when he played for the Marlins, another club with a facial hair ban.
- The Cubs are probably done their major offseason shopping, The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney writes (subscription required), as the team is likely to save its remaining money for potential in-season additions. By Mooney’s calculations, Chicago has roughly $13MM left for the trade deadline without going over the $197MM luxury tax threshold.
After this off-season, be hard to imagine an unproven pitcher getting a contract like that.
You’d think. There may be something about that foreign allure though. The big deals for guys like Darvish and Tanaka have worked very well.
A lot haven’t worked well. Dice-k and igawa for example
As a Yankees fan I wouldn’t say Tanaka has worked out that well.
Tanaka has been well above average every season he’s been in the bigs. He had a less than spectacular regular season last year but then he bounced back big time in the postseason.
It’s not necessarily the “foreign allure,” but it is the allure of the unknown. It’s the same reason that the fans of every team think their prospects are going to be great. They haven’t been shown otherwise yet. With guys like Lance Lynn, you know what you are getting. With a guy like Kikuchi or a AA pitcher, people convince themselves that it is better to take the 10% chance they will be great over a proven commodity that will be good, but not great.
That’s more or less what I meant by foreign allure. Mlb guys haven’t seen the pitcher and you might have the next big thing.
Seriously! Lance Lynn has nearly 1000IP of above average track record. Fresh off the year he returns from TJ and guts it out to beat his peripherals he gets 12m and we think a complete unknown gets 100m. Bad timing for that assumption at the very least!
Especially since he’s never faced major league hitters. I felt that the Ohtani craze this winter was also very premature since the guy had never set foot on a major league field. Both may end up being stars, but we saw this kind of fever before with Hideki Irabu and Daisuke Matsuzaka who ended up being flashes in the pan.
Easy to imagine…
Imagine
2018….
And teams still have the ability to ban facial hair?
I’m not sure what the hell Tony clark does to earn a paycheck.
Look at Johnny Damon to the Yanks.
Ya, I’m not one to promote a ban on facial hair, although I do think it should be managed cleanly while at work which 162 days a year for these guys (much less than the rest of us). But players who say they won’t sign with teams who have facial hair policies is just children throwing fits because they, like the rest of us, might have to do something they don’t like. Playing baseball is your career, you get paid handsomely for it, if your employer wants you to be clean shaven then shave. If it’s a big deal for you, then your priorities are out of whack. It almost makes me want to be a Yankees fan. Having that attitude in the real world leads to grown men living with their parents until they’re 40 because they don’t want to sacrifice a silly beard for a good job. Smallest violin ever is playing.
Personally I don’t work for a company that tries to stipulate physical appearance, or make up rules that employees have to follow even when off the clock. You’ll notice it’s not that important of a rule if the Orioles were willing to grant an exemption for a so so player.
Ya, I guess I get a bit rabid about these things, especially since this whole offseason I’ve been a proponent of the players over the owners. But, something about players not willing to sacrifice something like a silly beard gets under my skin as most people have to shave, or sacrifice much more, in order to get a job. I live in LA, and I think the constant exposure to hipsters is driving me a bit crazy about these things.
@adamontheshore – Not all beardies are hipsters. Open your mind it’s a beautiful world out there.
The mind is like a parachute, it works when open.
I have a beard and agree with cashner that it kind of becomes part of you. if I had a job choice of one place I could have a beard the other I can’t. I’d honestly take into consideration keeping my beard. You talk like a man who can’t/never has grown a beard.
Im the same way. I love having my beard and if there are other places that will let me keep it i will pick them. I used to be one that shaved all the time but that becomes a pain in the ass. Usually people who have a problem with beards are people who cant grow one and are just upset and whine about it.
Maybe he has some scars or he has a bad skin condition ! You don’t know all the facts !
except women
How is him not signing with Baltimore if they didn’t let him keep his beard “throwing a fit?” As a free agent he has a right to choose where he wants to and doesn’t want to go. If he chose to sign with Baltimore and then refused to play cuz they wanted him to shave his beard, then he would be throwing a fit
baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/bal/downloads/y2016/2016…
You can work in the front office and have a beard (scroll down a ways), you can be an investor and have a beard, but you can’t PLAY and have a beard.
Riiiiiiight….
Probably trying to win more important battles, but I’m not in the room.
But he lost all the important battles too…
Exactly. Tony Clark was laser focused on the important, core issues like executive chefs in every clubhouse and empty seats next to the players on spring training bus rides.
You mean like avoiding a luxury tax (** wink, wink – salary cap **) and stopping the commissioner from trying to ruin the game by saving 8 minutes of play time?
Lots of employers require neatly trimmed or no facial hair. It’s not discrimatory, the owner of any company can require a uniform standard which includes neatly trimmed facial hair. I don’t think it’s a big deal in baseball but don’t see why the year has anything to do with it. I personally was thrilled that the beard thing became more acceptable and I could stop shaving every freakin day.
It’s not? You can hit .400/.600/1.300/1.900 with 100 home runs, but if you have a beard, you’re not welcome?
Explain how that’s not discriminatory…
Because the owner can make rules for his business, employees can not. A dress code is not discrimination. Even if whiners whine about it.
Or even if dolts try to defend it.
It’s discrimination. You cannot dictate that a person cannot have tattoos, wear dresses, wear glasses, have a penis, etc.
Qualified people are qualified people. Period.
Welcome to 2018…
I honestly did not know about the orioles facial hair policy. It makes sense now but if you would’ve asked me if we had a facial hair policy I would’ve said we did not.
I wonder the total number of teams that have that or a similar policy regarding facial hair. Can guys still wear merkins and play ball?
The orioles policy I think is you can have well kept mustaches and goatees, or some stubble. Just no Jayson Werth type stuff.
But they can have a tattoo of Manson across their forehead and they’re good to go.
It makes no sense. It’s archaic.
It has become way more lax over the last decade or so. I think when they signed Vlad Guerrero and he wouldn’t get rid of completely they kinda lowered the standard to fit.
Ever wonder why markakis would grow his beard out during the off season then trim it when the season started I personally think it’s stupid but that’s just me
Miller was signed to be a closer. Even though he had been a set up man for 2 teams who had lights out closers (Koji and Britton) he clearly had closer stuff.
Also, at the time most thought the Yankees got a bargain . Miller himself said he passed up more money because his wife and him liked Ny.
This is nothing more than revisionist history, not that all revisionist history is as wrong as this .
Baseball is hilariously backwards sometimes.
“We’ll sign PED cheats, domestic abusers, scumbags, and criminals but we’re putting our foot down when it comes to beards”.
Thank you Orioles, for letting common sense prevail.
Up until a cpl years ago, the NYY forced ALL the MiLB kids they had to show the ugly sanitary sox like in the old days when every player did, like high rider style. now if they will get away from the buzz cuts. like what are they doing? look at NY.. Who is the mayor? There is nothing conservative about that town. it should be long hair and waist length beards…
I hate the Orioles front office and the way the team is run, so much…which is weird because I don’t hate the actual team or the players?
No team needs new ownership and management more than Baltimore.
FACTS
When the Marlins got Cashner and made him shave I told all of my friends that he was going to be garbage (him being garbage also helped) but you could tell his beard meant a lot to him. When he shaved it off, he buired it. Baseball should not have a facial hair policy. Yeah these men are being paid millions of dollars to play a game but many of them believe in superstitions and such (like playoff beards). I worked for the Ritz-Carlton and we had a clean shaven policy which makes sense there…..but in major league baseball? Why?
Also I am sure if Cashner had no other options he would have shaved for millions of dollars but what is the problem with him having a preference to keep it?
Even in the Ritz-Carlton it doesn’t make sense. It’s not like a beard ever prevented someone from carrying luggage to a room.
The only professions that makes sense to have a facial hair ban is the food service industry simply for hygienic purposes and fireman because it affect their air masks (or so that one commercial says anyway). Any other boss that bans facial hair is just doing it because they don’t like beards. And THAT is what is childish.
Why did you assume he carried bags for the Ritz-Carlton ? He could’ve been an executive in the office for all you know!
Beards also affect other jobs in law enforcement
and the military ! It keeps certain types of masks from sealing on the face completely !
Although Manfred tries to make it so, MLB is not the military.
I agree with beard policies in the food industry, but it seems kinda wrong to not allow beards for appearance purposes. It’s not like a beard is altering yourself unnaturally like piercings or tattoos. What’s next, telling people they have to dye their hair if it starts coming in gray? How bout a rule where you aren’t allowed hair on your head either?
“Sure, Jake Arrieta can’t get $100M, but this untested guy from overseas will!”
Nope.
Age also has a lot to do with it. If this guy would get $100M, it will definitely be at a much lower AAV over a longer period of time than Arrieta got. Arrieta is 32…this dude is 26.
Does the CBA actually allow teams to enforce a facial hair ban? Or is this just a baseball tradition that no one (yet) challenges?
The Yankees have a strict no facial hair policy. It’s an open market. You can NOT work for that organization if you don’t want to. Even if they draft you. Organizations can have their own policies. For better or worse..
But no ban on tattoos…
Yeah, uhhh no…
“I just think it’s a part of who I am, and it’s a part of my personality — it’s just me.”
HAHAHA. How goofy.
We have to understand the economics of how this works. If one position or one skill is valued more highly, you probably will have another skill valued not as highly,” Miller noted.
That comment really sums up the off-season, if ya think of it in that context. Relievers came off the board fast bc that was what was valued. Teams didn’t wanna overspend on mega contracts this winter, no longer a demand for it with teams rebuilding and using more analytical data. Can use younger players as opposed to guys like Neil walker, cargo, etc, a young starter as opposed to paying Cobb 20 mil. Teams valued everything different this winter than in the past.
No, Cashner’s “mystique” is that he got 2/16m in this market.
He needs to thank his lucky stars he got that contract. How will he perform for BAL? Eh, I gotta put on some serious rose colored glasses to even be slightly optimistic.
Cashner’s beard game is light years ahead of his pitching game.
$100MM contract for that walk rate? lol
While the beard policy is ridiculous, I’m just surprised a team, any team, bent their rules for Andrew friggin’ Cashner.
Nicely trimmed beards are fine, but when you look like a Neanderthal, like Werth, it’s time for a razor!
And some clippers. Floyd the barber, where are you?
Keep the beard Cashner. Youll need to wipe your tears.
The facial hair rule thing is a relic from the ’70s. At one time it was a positive, team-unification/team-image sort of thing. But so were turf stadiums, collared shirts, shorts (!) and pitchers going 9 innings half the time. It is 2018 and things like that need to go by the wayside. How much facial hair someone has does not affect their level of skill. I am an Orioles fan…if a guy can give us 200 innings of sub 4 ERA pitching I don’t care if he’s a werewolf with purple hair.